The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Bulgaria Ivan Kondov took part in the informal meeting of the General Affairs Council
03 September 2024 News
Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ivan Kondov took part in the informal meeting of the General Affairs Council, held in Budapest on 2—3 September 2024. The main topics of discussion at the Council were competitiveness, the rule of law through better lawmaking and tackling Europe's demographic challenges. Ministers focused on the following three areas to boost European competitiveness: A new industrial deal; Tackling demographic challenges and fostering innovation; Public and private finance.
Minister Ivan Kondov took part in the panel discussion on demographic challenges, calling for a cross-sectoral approach to integrate demographic policies across sectors such as: education, employment, cohesion, technology and innovation, health. Such an approach should provide for the necessary funding for Member States. The need to strengthen the link between research and business in order to stimulate economic growth was also highlighted.
The plenary session was devoted to improving the EU lawmaking process, with the Bulgarian side focusing on the need for the Commission to improve impact assessments of new legislative initiatives, taking into account national specificities and the cumulative effect of all European legislation in a given area. A call was made to reduce the regulatory burden for businesses, citizens and national administrations.
In the framework of the Council, Minister Kondov held a meeting with the Minister for European Affairs of Hungary, Bóka János, where emphasis was placed on the abolition of controls at Bulgaria's Schengen land borders in the framework of the Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the EU. Among the issues discussed was the European integration of the Western Balkan countries.