site.btaPresident, Vice President Meet with Representatives of Bulgarian National Minority in Moldova

Bulgaria will continue to support and develop its relations with the Bulgarian national minority in Moldova in dialogue with the representatives of the community as well as with the Moldovan state institutions to ensure that the most effective solutions to their problems can be found, said President Rumen Radev on Wednesday during a meeting in Sofia with representatives of the Bulgarian national minority in Moldova, Radev's Pess Secretariat reported. Vice President Iliana Iotova also took part in the talks.

Preserving the integrity of the Taraclia region, populated by ethnic Bulgarians, preserving the academic independence of the Taraclia’s Gregory Tsamblak State University and attracting investment in the Taraclia region were among the highlights of the meeting.

The representatives of the Bulgarian minority expressed their readiness to actively participate in the talks on the future of the Taraclia region. They touched upon the prospects for the development of the Bulgarian national minority in the light of Moldova's upcoming adaptation to the European legislation. The ethnic Bulgarians will insist the specificities of the areas where different minorities live to be taken into consideration, so as to guarantee their rights and to prevent depopulation processes.

Radev stressed that in this regard, both the Bulgarian state and the European Union will strictly monitor the compliance with the minorities' rights and their full participation in the development of social processes in the country.

Iotova raised the issue of school education in Bulgarian language for Bulgarian children in Moldova. She called for updating the cooperation agreement between Bulgaria and Moldova in the field of education. This would allow the creation of partnership ties between Bulgarian vocational schools and schools in the Taraclia region, and enable the accreditation of new specializations at Gregory Tsamblak State University, she pointed out.