site.btaPresident Describes Metallurgy, Heavy and Extractive Industries as Indispensable Part of Europe's Economic Development

Metallurgy, heavy and extractive industries are an indispensable part of Europe's economic development, President Rumen Radev said on Tuesday at the celebration of the Metallurgist's Day held under his patronage in Sofia.

Here lays Bulgaria's huge chance to position itself very strongly in these processes and to contribute to the future of Europe, the head of State added.

"Despite the political and economic upheavals and turmoil of the past decades, you have not only managed to preserve the backbone of Bulgarian industry - metallurgy, but also to develop it," the President said. "I am convinced that without a strong backbone, such as metallurgy and heavy industry, no country can claim to have a sustainable, strong and independent economy," Radev added.

"Europe lived with the naive belief that it would continue to close mines and its extractive industries, that it would continue to import cheap and accessible critical raw materials and energy from outside, that it would continue to export its heavy industry and metallurgy, and that only high, green, digital technologies and know-how would be developed in Europe. But the crises that have shaken Europe - COVID-19, the war in Ukraine, the energy crisis - have brought Europe out of this sweet slumber," Radev argued.

According to him, heavy industry is placed at the centre of the future economic development and the strategic autonomy of the European Union. "It has been clearly realized that for Europe to be autonomous, independent and strong, to be an important player on the global stage, it must develop a high-tech but also full-fledged economy," Radev added.

"Despite the political instability, we must together raise more and more insistently the questions about the future of our metallurgy, our heavy industry," the President said. "We need a special approach of the State regarding the energy policy towards this strategically important sector," he added.

"It is important not only to export semi-finished products, but also to start producing products with high added value on the basis of the raw materials we have, to export the final product," Radev said.