site.btaBTA Director General in Belgrade: Common Peaceful Future of Serbia and Bulgaria Depends on Information Connectivity

The European Commission's choice for BTA to organize this joint project is justified, as for 126 years the "B" in the name of the agency has stood not only for "Bulgarian", but also for "Balkan", said BTA Director General Kiril Valchev at the opening of the sixth cross-border conference of the project "Europe in the Balkans: A Common Future" in Belgrade on Friday. He noted that Balkan news has been present in BTA since its first day on February 16, 1898.

Valchev pointed out that the BTA coverage of information from the Balkans is a continuation of the policy of Bulgaria, which dedicated its first EU Presidency in 2018 to the EU Enlargement of the Western Balkans, as well as the common European policy to promote the development of the regional cooperation through funding with cross-border cohesion funds.

"We're holding this conference here one day after the Orthodox Ascension of the Lord - a celebration of our common Christian faith in Bulgaria and Serbia, which is the basis of the values on which Europe was founded. These values are common to all people around the world, as they are also found in other religions as well", Valchev noted. He said that Bulgarians and Serbs celebrate the hope for the salvation of souls, which begins with knowing what unites the people of both countries today, instead of focusing only on what divided them yesterday. He added that people must however not forget the past, so as not to repeat old mistakes.

The common peaceful future of Serbia and Bulgaria depends on more and deeper information about the present day of the people in both countries, according to Valchev, who presented ways through which this can be accomplished. "First, support from both sides for Bulgarian-language media in Serbia. They provide valuable information for the Bulgarian minority as a bridge for friendship between Bulgaria and Serbia", he pointed out. He added that as a sign of such support, BTA organizes world meetings of the Bulgarian media every year, with such a meeting opening in Odessa in the following week. Odesa is home to 150,000 Bulgarians, noted Valchev.

As a second step Valchev defined the exchange of news between the national information agencies and pointed out that BTA and Serbia's national news agency Tanjug signed an agreement on Thursday. "BTA thus has news exchange arrangements with the national news agencies of all countries neighbouring on Bulgaria. Tanjug is an agency with more than 80 years of history", said Valchev. 

He said that BTA plans to open a permanent correspondent office in Belgrade, as he defined the information coming from correspondents as a third pillar for deepening information channels between countries. According to him this is part of BTA's strategy to expand the network of permanent correspondent offices, as there are such in Skopje, Bucharest and Ankara, with plans to add a correspondent office in Athens as well. The agency also has correspondents in Bosilegrad and Istanbul, operating as stringers. The goal is for BTA to have a national press club in every country on the Balkans, which will act as media centres for meetings and events. "Over the past 3 years, BTA also covered all significant events on the Balkans with special correspondents, including elections, economic forums, culture and sports events, as well as tourism opportunities", said Valchev. 

He also presented the possibility of common information projects between news agencies. "For example, BTA and TANJUG share news through the European Newsroom, a platform for cooperation between European news agencies", he pointed out, adding that since 1973, BTA has announced the Athlete of the Balkans ranking, which the agency makes together with sports editorial offices of all Balkan news agencies, including TANJUG. Novak Djokovic has topped the ranking eight times, including in 2023.

Valchev pointed out that BTA and Tanjug are the only representatives of their respective countries in the European Alliance of News Agencies (EANA), and said that cooperation between news agencies in common international organizations is important. "In September 2022, BTA became the headquarters of the Association of Balkan News Agencies Southeast Europe (ABNA - SE), in which 12 agencies participate. Yesterday I invited TANJUG to join ABNA - SE and my colleague Manja Grcic, CEO of TANJUG, said that she accepted the invitation", said Valchev.

He concluded that information connectivity is particularly important for the common future of the Balkans in Europe and that information agencies have a great responsibility. "Because information is the basis of any understanding, which is why BTA makes great efforts to provide more knowledge for Bulgaria's neighbours", he noted.

The BTA project "Europe in the Balkans: A Common Future" is supported by the European Commission. It aims to foster a better understanding of the role of cohesion policy in the Balkans; to raise awareness of projects funded by the EU through the Cohesion Funds; promote dialogue on the results of the projects at local level and boost civic participation in issues related to cohesion policy. 

The project is funded with EUR 348,871. To achieve the project's aims, BTA is using a media mix and expects to reach out to between 700,000 and 1 million people in Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, North Macedonia, Greece and Turkiye. 

The series of conferences under the project was launched on December 20, 2023 in Sofia. The programme until August 2024 envisages BTA-hosted discussions in the cities of Blagoevgrad, Burgas, Varna, Vidin, Vratsa, Gabrovo, Dobrich, Kazanlak, Kardzhali, Kyustendil, Lovech, Montana, Pazardzhik, Pernik, Pleven, Plovdiv, Razgrad, Samokov, Silistra, Sliven, Smolyan, Sofia, Stara Zagora, Targovishte, Haskovo, Shumen, Yambol, Kardzhali and Haskovo, as well as cross-border conferences in Belgrade, Bosilegrad, Bucharest, Edirne, Skopje and Thessaloniki.