site.btaUPDATED Chamber of Commerce and Industry Hosts Meeting on Belgian EU Presidency

The EU Club at the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) held a meeting on Monday occasioned by the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the first half of 2024. Belgium is in an EU Presidency Trio with Spain (July-December 2023) and Hungary (July-December 2024).

The meeting was attended by Belgian Ambassador to Bulgaria Frederic Meurice, Spanish Embassy Deputy Chief of Mission Jaione Cereijo and Bulgarian Foreign Ministry Director for Foreign Economic Relations and Development Cooperation Radka Balabanova. The discussion was moderated by Ingrid Shikova, who chairs the EU Club at the BCCI and co-founded the European Studies Department of Sofia University.

BCCI President Tsvetan Simeonov said EU Club meetings are aimed to assist Bulgarian society on the path to full integration into the EU. He said the local public is interested in the steps which the country needs to take to become completely integrated into EU structures, and the EU Club has an important role to play in this respect. "We were naive to think that Bulgaria's entry to the EU in 2007 would rob the EU Club of its raison d'etre, but this is not the case," Simeonov commented.

According to him, the three foremost priorities of the Bulgarian institutions and government in 2024 are the country's accession to the Schengen area, the eurozone and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. "These are matters that are very important for the future of Bulgaria," he added.

Spain was an "honest broker" during the six months it held the EU Presidency in the second half of 2023 and did very well with its fifth rotating Presidency, the Spanish Embassy's Deputy Chief of Mission commented. 
 
She recalled the breakthrough made surrounding the accession of Bulgaria and Romania to Schengen after the Netherlands lifted its veto and Austria's position became more flexible. 

"Spain has always supported the two countries, believing that they have met the requirements", Ambassador Cereijo recalled.