An invitation for participation in the MFA competition for the slogan (motto) of the National Programme of Initiatives to commemorate in 2024 the 20th Anniversary of Bulgaria's NATO Membership
23 February 2024 News
On behalf of the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Bulgaria, Mrs. Mariya Gabriel, we are pleased to invite you to participate in the competition organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for a slogan (motto) of the National Programme of Initiatives to commemorate in 2024 the 20th anniversary of Bulgaria's membership in NATO.
The year 2024 is a landmark year for the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. The Alliance celebrates its 75th anniversary. It is also significant for Bulgaria because our country, together with our allies from six Eastern European countries, celebrates the 20th anniversary of its accession to NATO.
The Government of the Republic of Bulgaria adopted a National Programme of Initiatives to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Bulgaria's NATO membership in 2024. The planned initiatives will not only mark the anniversary of our membership in the Alliance, but will also remind that Bulgaria is already an established and reliable NATO ally, as well as the reasons why we have joined the largest and most successful military-political alliance in history:
- Shared values,
- Equality and safeguarding democratic rights and freedoms,
- Collective defence and common responsibilities.
The activities and events set out in the National Programme of Initiatives to commemorate in 2024 the 20th anniversary of Bulgaria's membership in NATO aim to raise awareness of the nature and objectives of NATO and Bulgaria's membership in the Alliance. In a narrower sense, it aims to fill the accumulated deficits in terms of key issues that affect our society as a whole — what it means to be a member state of the Alliance, what are the positives for our country, what are our responsibilities, to dispel the narratives about the negatives of NATO membership, as well as to build resilience against external influence and information manipulation, disinformation and fake news.
The effectiveness of such a large-scale programme can only be guaranteed through homogeneity of messages. To this end, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as one of the leading institutions in the implementation of the Programme, organises a slogan (motto) competition which is:
– To become an effective and recognisable tool of the programme;
– To inspire confidence in the authenticity, credibility and truthfulness of the messages broadcast;
– To facilitate communication and to unite the efforts of the participants in the campaign to achieve its information objectives;
– To ensure quick and easy association with authentic sources of information.
The motto will become an integral part of the branding of the National Programme of Initiatives to commemorate in 2024 the 20th anniversary of the
Bulgaria's membership in NATO and will be used as a tag and a hashtag for social media posts.
Our invitation to you is to take part in the challenge to propose the most original and most in line with the objectives of the Programme motto that is also innovative, recognizable and associative, and reflects the idea that for Bulgaria:
- NATO membership guarantees the security we need to continue to grow and prosper;
- NATO is a family of shared values for 1 billion people in 31 countries and many partners in the global world, to which we have belonged for 20 years;
- Democratic values and freedom are what bind us together and make us a common union, and we are responsible to preserve them.
The competition is open. It is open to any student who is studying in a civilian or military major at a higher education institution in Bulgaria. Each participant may submit up to three proposals for a slogan (motto) in Bulgarian and in a suitable English translation. Proposals must be accompanied by a brief description and justification in Bulgarian of the idea for the proposed slogan (motto) in Times New Roman font, size 12, in Word format (up to 1800 characters);
You can send your proposals for the slogan (motto) of the National Programme of Initiatives to commemorate in 2024 the 20th anniversary of Bulgaria's NATO membership in Word or PDF format by email to [email protected] with the subject heading ’For participation in the MFA slogan (motto) competition’,providing in the email the full name of the author, address, telephone number and e-mail for feedback, and attaching your slogan (motto) proposal with the short description and justification in Bulgarian of the idea for it in font ‘Times New Roman’, size 12, in Word format (up to 1800 characters) and a completed, signed and scanned Declaration of Consent for the Processing of Personal Data (attached to this invitation). Proposals that do not contain the above components will not be considered.
The deadline for submission of proposals is 05:00 p.m. on 23 February 2024.
Your slogan (motto) proposals will be reviewed and evaluated by a jury and ranked by voting. In making their decision, the jury members will be guided by the following criteria:
- Compliance with the ideas and objectives set out in the National Programme of Initiatives to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Bulgaria's NATO membership in 2024;
- Clear concept;
- Clarity and unambiguity of the message;
- Original idea and creativity;
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will announce the ranking of the projects on its official website — https://www.mfa.bg. For the projects ranked 1st, 2nd and 3rd, the authors will also receive personal information on the provided e-mail and phone numbers.
The winner of the competition and the runners-up will be awarded personally by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mrs. Mariya Gabriel, and will be given the opportunity to do an internship in a directorate of their choice in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
We look forward to your ideas!