BTA's Europe on Balkans Cohesion Skills Conference Held in Edirne

Sofia Gospodinova, Nikolay Trifonov, Filip Pavlov

Cross-border conference in Edirne within BTA's Europe on Balkans: Cohesion Skills project, March 25, 2025 (BTA Photo/Vladimir Shokov)

Edirne, Turkiye,

25.03.2025 14:49

(BTA)

Tags

Representatives of the education sector who have worked on projects related to the EU's Cohesion Policy participated in a cross-border conference at the National Press Club of the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) in Edirne on Tuesday. The event was part of BTA's Europe on Balkans: Cohesion Skills project.

Bulgarian and Turkish universities are implementing joint scientific projects in areas such as clean energy, climate, environment and innovation, said Consul General of Bulgaria in Edirne Radoslava Kafedzhiyska. Currently, just over 20 PhD students from Turkiye are studying in Bulgaria, who traditionally specialize in the fields of medicine and engineering, she noted, adding that the two countries also have an active exchange under the Erasmus+ programme, as over the past 10 years, more than 6,000 young Turkish students and 3,000 professors have visited Bulgaria under this programme. Kafedzhiyska emphasised that Bulgaria and Turkiye have significant joint activities in the field of science, noting that there are over 1,700 joint publications by Bulgarian and Turkish scientific organizations.

Trakya University is one of the most important in the region with 50,000 students and lecturers, said Prof Emel Guler from the university's Faculty of Applied Sciences. "The data shows us how important tourism activity and its influence are", Guler said, pointing out that Baba Marta is already celebrated in Edirne, as on March 1 all residents of the city take a martenitsa and welcome spring. "We are working with our tourism association on a project in which you can travel within Bulgaria, Greece and Turkiye within one day and see tourist sites," Guler emphasised.

In addition to cross border projects, it is very important for Bulgaria and Turkiye, as two neighboring countries, to present the Black Sea Region as a whole, Burgas Free University Rector Prof Milen Baltov said. "Edirne is also the gateway for our university, which exactly 30 years ago concluded the first international agreement with a university from Turkiye, namely with Trakya University", he pointed out. Baltov presented the results of the hackathon which took place at the Burgas Free University in November 2024, where students from the High School for Romance Languages won the competition with a project for a robot that cleans oil, plastic and various pesticides from the oceans around the world.

International relations are of particular importance, because unity is strength, stated Senior Assistant Professor Mehmed Halil from Trakia University. "Our relations with universities in Turkiye are stable. Our goal is to maintain this stability and in the future to strengthen relations with these universities", Halil noted, adding that it is of great importance to collaborate with both business and science.

BTA's Europe on Balkans: Cohesion Skills project aims to raise public awareness and foster open dialogue about cohesion policy, local achievements, and the implementation of the EU's policy priorities. The project kicked off with a conference in Veliki Preslav in November 2024. Until September 2025, BTA will host discussions at its press clubs in the following cities: Blagoevgrad, Burgas, Varna, Veliko Tarnovo, Vidin, Vratsa, Gabrovo, Dobrich, Kazanlak, Kardzhali, Kyustendil, Lovech, Montana, Pazardzhik, Pernik, Pleven, Razgrad, Ruse, Samokov, Svishtov, Sliven, Smolyan, Sofia, Stara Zagora, Troyan, Targovishte, Haskovo, Shumen, and Yambol. Cross-border conferences will be held in Belgrade, Bosilegrad, Bucharest, Edirne, Skopje, and Thessaloniki. The project builds on the Europe in the Balkans: A Common Future and Europe in Bulgaria: A Common Future projects, implemented by BTA in 2023 and 2024, respectively.

/NF/