site.btaDeputy Innovation and Growth Minister: Bulgaria Is Mulling Joining ESA Zero Debris Charter

Bulgaria is considering joining the Zero Debris Charter, an initiative announced by the Director General of the European Space Agency (ESA) in June 2023. The announcement was made by Georgi Angelov, caretaker Deputy Minister for Innovation and Growth, at the three-day National Forum for Advanced Space Research, which started Tuesday at the Sofia Tech Park.

The fifth edition of the event is organized by the Union of Physicists in Bulgaria’s Cosmos Branch, the Institute of Astronomy with National Astronomical Laboratory at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and the Ratio Popular Science Platform, held under the auspices of the Ministry of Innovation and Growth. The ESA initiative addresses the issue of tackling space debris and how to use space in a sustainable way. Bulgaria's accession to the charter is being debated by the Council of Ministers, which is to allow the country's foreign minister to sign the charter on Bulgaria's behalf, it emerged in the course of the discussion raised on the issue.  

He recalled that Bulgaria has already increased its annual contributions to the European Space Agency (ESA), with the latest level of BGN 2 million. The level corresponds to the status of a cooperating country with ESA. When the contribution of BGN 5 million is reached, then Bulgaria will move to the next tier of associate member in the agency. This is the third of four levels, the last of which is full membership, Angelov further specified.

In his words, Bulgaria is already pursuing a space policy in which the country should be consistent.

Georgi Angelov assured the professional community that the creation of a Bulgarian Space Agency is on the Ministry's to-do list, and talks and discussions on the subject are ongoing. ESA, he said, will be the instrument to achieve the goals in the sector. 

He is convinced that the country has passed the breaking point and no longer needs to prove and defend the importance of the space domain.

"Now we need to move on and increase our capabilities," the Deputy Minister said.

Amid the political instability, he pointed out that there is a consensus in the technology sector in the country. 

On the subject of the motivation of young people to establish companies within the universities, Georgi Angelov stated categorically that for the last 5-6 years Bulgaria has been a completely different country compared to what it used to be in the recent past, with huge investments in a complex of laboratories, competence and skills centers, etc. He recalled that periodic meetings at Sofia Tech Park, incubators around Sofia, in Plovdiv, in Varna and other places, are held about the available opportunities for access to funding. Against this background, however, he added that there is a need for sustained efforts to make the public, including academics and students, aware of the availability of this kind of career and project development.