site.btaBulgaria, Ukraine Agree to Resume Work of Intergovernmental Economic Cooperation Commission

May 14 (BTA) - Bulgaria's Deputy Prime Minister in
charge of economic and demographic policy, Mariyana Nikolova,
and Ukraine's First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of
Economic Development and Trade, Stepan Kubiv, have agreed to
resume the operation of the Intergovernmental Commission for
Economic Cooperation. The sides discussed the opportunity for a
working meeting in Odessa in the beginning of July to determine
the priority fields of the Seventh Meeting of the
Intergovernmental Commission, the Government information service
 said on Tuesday.

Nikolova is on an official visit to Ukraine between May 13 and
14.

Deputy Prime Minister NIkolova proposed that the commission,
which has not met for nine years, meets even this fall. She
expressed Bulgaria's expectations to see abidance by the
agreements about keeping Bolgrad region (where many ethnic
Bulgarians live) within its present administrative borders.

Kubiv suggested that the agenda of the Intergovernmental
Commission include discussion of economic, tariff, educational
and military matters. He also insisted that special attention be
 paid to the decentralization of Ukraine by closer contacts
between Bulgarian municipalities and those of Odessa, Nikolayev
and Zaporizhia provinces.

Nikolova expressed gratitude for the agreement that an expert
group from the Ukrainian Ministry of Education coordinate with
Bulgarian colleagues texts in the new Protocol of Agreement and
Exchange between the two educational ministries. "This is
necessary to introduce clear-cut rules of teaching and learning
Bulgarian in Ukrainian state schools," she said, adding that she
 relies on the other side to abide by the agreements between the
 two countries about building to house a school with
extracurricular Bulgarian classes in Odessa, and called upon the
 Ukrainian side to speed up and finalize the procedure.

At an official ceremony at the Tchaikovsky National Music
Academy of Ukraine  Nikolova and Kubiv unveiled a memorial
plaque dedicated to the centenary of diplomatic relations
between the two countries./RY/BR