The Bulgarian presidency of BSEC will seek pragmatic dialogue with the EU
15 November 2013 News
"The countries from our region need a serious commitment within the framework of the regional cooperation formats. In this regard, for the Black Sea region BSEC is a priority and Bulgaria takes seriously its commitment during its forthcoming rotating presidency of the organization." This was said by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Kristian Vigenin during his meeting with Victor Tvircun, Secretary General of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) Permanent International Secretariat, who is visiting our country at the invitation of the Foreign Minister .
At the meeting today, Minister Vigenin and Tvircun discussed opportunities for further development of the regional cooperation within BSEC and the priorities of the 6-month Bulgarian rotating presidency of the organization, to be assumed on 1 January 2014.
Currently we are actively working on preparing and planning the priorities of our presidency, said Kristian Vigenin. Creating synergies between the BSEC and the other regional cooperation formats is one of the goals that we set in this direction, added the foreign minister, emphasizing that the strengthening of the regional relations is among the main priorities of the Bulgarian foreign policy.
"For Bulgaria the establishment of a pragmatic BSEC-EU dialogue, among the priority areas of the cooperation, will be one of the highlights of its presidency. We will continue to work towards a stronger involvement of the EU in the region", the Foreign Minister said.
Kristian Vigenin and Victor Tvircun agreed on the idea that the project-oriented dimension of the BSEC is of a key importance. "Our goal is to actively work on the topic with the non-governmental sector and the businesses. It is important to see what are the specific expectations of the citizens and what will benefit them most", Kristian Vigenin said .
"I am confident that in the cooperation we will achieve positive results during the Bulgarian presidency of BSEC", Victor Tvircun said. According to him, the focus should be on implementing small but concrete projects of direct relevance to the business - "the engine of the economic development of the region." In this regard, he gave a positive assessment of the initiative of Minister Vigenin for closer cooperation with the public-private sector.
"We highly appreciate the good cooperation with the Permanent International Secretariat of BSEC. We hope to continue our active relations in the future, for the successful implementation of the Bulgarian rotating presidency. You know best where the challenges are", Kristian Vigenin said. "If we combine our capacities and efforts, I believe we will achieve concrete positive results", said on his part the General Secretary .
At the invitation of Minister Vigenin, Victor Tvircun participated in the third meeting of the Public Council to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs , the focus of which will be the priorities of the Bulgarian presidency of BSEC in the first half of 2014.