site.btaSofia Hosts EU Meets the Balkans Forum

The EU Meets the Balkans Forum will be held in Sofia on Monday. It brings together high-level speakers for a debate on regional cooperation and EU integration, the organizers of the European Liberal Forum, the ALDE Party and the Atlantic Club of Bulgaria said.

The increasingly complex geopolitical environment dominated by Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine demonstrates the importance of unity of the European family. The forum will focus on the need of forging ever closer ties between the EU and the Balkan Region, the organizers said.

The forum is held with support from the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry.

MEP Ilhan Kyuchyuk, Co-President of the ALDE party, Atlantic Club of Bulgaria President Solomon Passy and European Liberal Forum Executive Director Alva Finn will open the forum. Keynote addresses will be given by Bulgaria's outgoing Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mariya Gabriel, European Parliament President Roberta Metsola (by video) and the European Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement, Oliver Varhelyi, who is in Sofia for the forum.

Commissioner Varhelyi's speech will be broadcast live on EbS+. He is scheduled to meet with President Rumen Radev and to hold bilateral meetings with participants in the forum.

Other participants in the forum include the EU Special Representative for the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue, Miroslav Lajcak, Albania's Deputy Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Artemis Malo, Montenegro's European Affairs Minister Maida Gorcevic, Bujar Osmani, Foreign Minister of the Republic of North Macedonia, Romania's State Secretary for European Affairs Daniela Gitman, Serbia's European Integration Minister Tanja Miscevic and Turkiye's Deputy Foreign Minister Mehmet Kemal Bozay.