site.btaNation's Demographic Development Discussed at Parliament-Hosted Roundtable

The National Assembly hosted a roundtable on drawing up a national plan to regenerate and revitalize the Bulgarian nation, the Vazrazhdane party said on Tuesday. The conference was organized by the Committee on Demographic Policy, Children and Family (CDPCF) and involved 15 government and academic institutions and representatives of the civil sector. They discussed issues of Bulgaria's demographic development for four hours.

Vazrazhdane leader Kostadin Kostadinov, who chairs CDPCF, told journalists before the meeting that the population collapse is the most serious problem which has confronted Bulgaria over the last 40 years. He said the government has taken no steps to address the situation.

The roundtable supported Kostadinov's proposal to set up a working group to compile a national plan for addressing the Bulgarian population collapse. "Work on the plan will begin as soon as Friday," he said, adding that it should set out measures and deadlines.

Given that the National Assembly has 10 working days until the end of its tenure, the time is not really auspicious for such an undertaking, but work on a population emergency plan should have begun long ago and no more time should be wasted now, Kostadinov said. He will coordinate the functioning of the working group until the end of the present National Assembly's life. The group is supposed to stay operational under the next Assembly.