Bulgaria celebrates 20 years full membership in the Francophonie

16 October 2013 Diplomatic Calendar

The 20th anniversary of Bulgaria's full membership in the Francophonie will be celebrated with a conference on the topic "Francophonie and digital citizenship," which will take place on October 16 from 1.30 pm to 5.30 pm at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Co-organizers of the event are the Group of Francophone Ambassadors in Sofia, the French Institute in Bulgaria, the Bulgarian section of the Association of the Members of the French Order of the Academic Palms Association (AMOPA ) and team " E- citizenship " from the New Bulgarian University.

On the occasion of the anniversary, Minister of Foreign Affairs Kristian Vigenin will host a reception for the francophone community on October 16. A ceremony, organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Municipality of Sofia, on the renaming of the two streets next to the Francophone Institute of Administration and Management, who will bear the name " Léopold Sédar Senghor" and " Street of La Francophonie ", will take place on October 17.

Guest of the events celebrating the anniversary will be the Head of the Office of the Secretary-General of the Francophonie(OIF) – Pierre de Cocatrix. He will be accompanied by Pierre Ouedraogo, Director of “Digital Francophonie” Director at (OIF) who will introduce the participants in the conference with the Digital strategy of OIF, adopted at the XIV-th Highest-Level Meeting of the Organization in October 2012 in Kinshasa .

The conference will be attended by Zhelyu Zhelev(President of the Republic of Bulgaria 1992-1997) , Jacques Toubon ( French Minister of Culture and Francophonie 1993-1995 ), Anick Van Calster, Ambassador of Belgium, representing the Group of Francophone Ambassadors in Sofia, Latifa Akharbache- Ambassador of Morocco , Petko Staynov, representative of the University Agency of the Francophonie and Chairman of the antenna of its desk for CEE, scientists from Bulgaria , Belgium, Canada, France, representatives of the Presidential Administration of the Republic of Bulgaria , of the Ministry of Transport and Information Technology , Ministry of Education , Ministry of Culture .

Bulgaria has the reputation of the leader for the Francophone dynamics in Central and Eastern Europe. The country is an associate member of the Organization since 1991 and together with Romania are the first CEE countries that joined the family of countries sharing the French language. Our country actively participates in the institutional and political debate in OIF and put serious efforts in promoting the values of the organization, with a membership of 77 countries from all continents.