Bulgaria handed over the Chairmanship-in-Office of BSEC to Greece
19 June 2014 News
The Bulgarian Chairmanship-in-Office of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperationis coming to an end. Our calendar of events was extensive, but more valuable are the achieved practical results in a number of priority areas - transport, youth and sports, health, information technology, strengthening of the business contacts between the countries of the region, said Minister Kristian Vigenin at a joint press conference with the Deputy Foreign Minister of Greece - Dimitris Kourkoulas, whose country takes over the rotating presidency of BSEC for the period 1 July - 31 December 2014.
Minister Vigenin emphasized that the Bulgarian Chairmanship-in-Office has successfully introduced a new dimension of cooperation - in the field of youth and sports. It was launched with a ministerial meeting in April in Varna, where the Member States brought up a number of ideas and general will for fruitful future cooperation in that direction.
At the initiative of the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce, which was simultaneously holding the Presidency of the BSEC Business Council, we managed to organize two business forums and conferences that contributed to the deepening of the contacts between the business communities of the region. In the field of information and communication technologies, we have initiated the establishment of platform for interaction between ICT clusters, added Minister Kristian Vigenin.
The common priorities and ways of effective interaction between the BSEC and the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank were identified during the Bulgarian Chairmanship-in-Office. The specific support that the Bank is committed to provide to BSEC is related to capacity building of the future Project Management Unit (PMU) within the BSEC Secretariat, the Bulgarian Foreign Ministersaid.
Deputy Minister Dimitris Kourkoulas emphasized that the forthcoming Greek Chairmanship-in-Office will aim at preserving the continuity in the BSEC priorities. Greece assumes the Presidency of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation day after handing over the EU Presidency to Italy. This coincidence has a symbolic meaning. It shows that we must proceed with our efforts to strengthen the BSEC – EU cooperation, he said.
Over the next six months, the Greek Chairmanship will work for increasing the visibility and importance of the region and its attractiveness for investors, said Dimitris Kourkoulas. He outlined the key objectives of the Greek Chairmanship-in-Office, which will be held under the motto "Building support for economic cooperation."
At the closing session of the meeting, the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs adopted Resolutions, Decisions and Recommendations on various issues.The participants welcomed the creation of a Project Management Unit (PMU) within the BSEC. The Council appointed Country-Coordinators for two-year terms for the Working Groups on Customs Matters (Azerbaijan), Healthcare and Pharmaceutics (Greece) Cooperation in Science and Technology (Azerbaijan) as well as the Ad Hoc Working Group of Experts in Seismic Risk (Turkey).
The Council also renewed the Observer status of Austria and Egypt as well as the Sectoral Dialogue Partnership status of Japan, Slovenia, the Black Sea Universities Network (BSUN), the Black Sea International Shipowners Association (BINSA) and the Black and Azov Seas Ports Association (BASPA) for another period of two years. The BSEC Budget for the Financial Year 2015 was approved too, by the Council of Ministers.
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