Ruse, the largest Bulgarian city on the Danube River and the fifth largest city in Bulgaria, is a symbol of the Bulgarian's openness to diversity and new things against the background of strong local traditions, said BTA Director General Kiril Valchev during a local conference as part of BTA's Europe on Balkans: Cohesion Skills project. The conference took place at the BTA National Press Club here on Friday.
He pointed out that Ruse is the city through which various things from the rest of Europe come to Bulgarian lands along the Danube River, adding that other European countries can only take as an example the cosmopolitanism, tolerance for diversity and receptiveness to innovations of the Bulgarians in Ruse. Other European nations do not have this interest in each other, said Valchev, adding that some countries demonstrate introversion and self-sufficiency, while others have been aggressively imposing their own way of life and interests on distant lands for centuries, without adopting much from there themselves.
Valchev stressed that this is also confirmed by the Nobel laureate Elias Canetti, who was born in Ruse and who wrote about the city that "if I say that it was in Bulgaria, I give an incomplete idea of it, since people of all different origins lived there and in just one day seven or eight languages could be heard." Valchev recalled that the connection of Ruse with the rest of Europe begins with Sexaginta Prista, the ancient Roman fortress with barriers for mooring 60 ships on the territory of today's Ruse.
He emphasised that not only the foreign came along the Danube to Ruse, but that Bulgarian traditions also floated to Europe. He noted that over the centuries the “new” from the West in Europe has sometimes only revived the “old”, which was in the Bulgarian lands in times before it appeared elsewhere in the European lands. He added that from the time of the early Bulgarian Renaissance, which preceded the Western European Renaissance by two centuries, there is also the Cherven medieval fortress, which had a population of nearly 10,000 people in the 14th century, while today only about a hundred elderly people live permanently in the village.
"We are indebted to these examples, to which we are heirs, and today with the help of the EU we must fulfill our duty to maintain and display them. Because it is not a good assessment for our generation that the repaired road from Ivanovo to the Rock-hewn Churches ends 1.2 kilometres before them, and the railings of the paths and stairs are rusting from the time of socialism", Valchev said, adding that the Rock-hewn Churches of Ivanovo are among the seven cultural sites on the List of World Cultural and Natural Heritage of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization UNESCO.
"This should remind us that the great meaning of any investment, including from European funds, should be directed towards the people remaining in Bulgaria, including in Ruse Region", Valchev stressed, adding that if investments in the present are directed correctly, not only will young people remain in Bulgaria, but many talents who have left the country will also return.
In this regard, he added that after the Liberation, the city was the most populous and most modern city in the Principality of Bulgaria, with many of the technological innovations of the late 19th and early 20th centuries finding their first application in Bulgaria in the Danube city. In 1878, Ruse became the first city in Bulgaria with an urban development plan and curbs, sidewalks and street gas lamps appeared for the first time in Bulgaria. In 1899, the main streets of the city were covered with paving stones purchased from France, Valchev recalled, adding that the numerous buildings, which today are monuments of culture, were built in the architectural styles that were modern for their time in the rest of Europe.
Ruse was also the first Bulgarian city to screen films, as well as as, in more recent times, the city where the first public demonstration of European-style civil pressure was held, Valchev said, referring to the eco-protest on September 28, 1987, when about 500 people demanded clean air. He recalled that in 1881 the first private bank, Girdap, was established in Ruse, in whose emblematic building the National Press Club of BTA is located today.
He noted that Ruse is part of the general national and European conversations organized by BTA, as even though the news agency has been present in the region with correspondents since the middle of the last century, a press club in the Danube city was only opened in 2021. "Over the past four years, BTA has tripled its national press clubs and preserved and developed the 14 press clubs opened in the previous 18 years, so that currently BTA has opened a total of 42 national press clubs, which are also correspondent offices of the national news agency of Bulgaria", Valchev emphasised, adding that thanks to BTA's national press clubs, more Bulgarians from all these places in Bulgaria and abroad are part of the general national and European conversations.
"We usually hear that Bulgaria receives money from the EU and what remains in our minds is that we Bulgarians are the ones who only benefit from our participation in the EU. But the truth is that the EU also benefits from Bulgarians, just as it benefits from other European nations. The point of these conferences is to see the contemporary contribution," Valchev said.
"We chose the date of the conference the day after the closing of the March Music Days International Festival, because they are also an example of the Bulgarian's curiosity about the world with the diverse programme of musical works from all over Europe," Valchev noted.
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.
