site.btaBalkan Prayer Breakfast Brings Together More than 180 People from 31 Countries

Balkan Prayer Breakfast
Brings Together More than 180 People
from 31 Countries


Plovdiv, South Central Bulgaria, May 28 (BTA) - A working
meeting on security was held in Plovdiv as part of the Balkan
Prayer Breakfast over the weekend, with more than 180 people
from 31 countries on four continents sending a message for peace
 and prosperity worldwide. Nearly 90 people arrived from the
countries of the Western Balkans.

Addressing the participants in Sunday's working meeting, Tsvetan
 Tsvetanov, GERB floor leader and deputy leader of the party,
said: "Modern Europe is faced with challenges. Nationalism and
populism gave rise to fake news designed to influence the
public's attitudes." He stressed that transcontinental
cooperation and EU-US partnership are crucial to stability in
Europe.

Tsvetanov also said: "Such meetings help us build bridges in the
 name of human values and democracy. Bulgaria and Plovdiv are a
model of ethnic tolerance, a symbol of the way we can live
together in mutual understanding and respect."

EU membership is the good prospect for the countries of the
region, said Tsvetanov, citing the positive changes which have
taken place in Bulgaria and Romania in the ten years since they
joined the EU.

Plovdiv Mayor Ivan Totev stressed that the city was designated
one of the 2019 European Capitals of Culture with the motto
"Together". Totev also said: "Plovdiv is a special city with a
very long history, the meeting point of seven civilizations. It
is a city with impressive cultural strata and a convergence of
emotions. People of many ethnic groups and religions have lived
here together for centuries."

The Balkan Prayer Breakfast brought together people who have
participated in the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, DC,
 including former prime minister Filip Dimitrov, MPs Asen Agov
and Peter Moutafchiev, Plovdiv's former mayor Ivan Chomakov,
representatives of the Jewish, Armenian and Muslim communities,
and public figures. The Minister for the Bulgarian Presidency of
 the EU Council in 2018, Liliyana Pavlova, and Tourism Minister
Nikolina Angelkova were among the guests.