The Bulgarian presidency of the Council of the EU in 2018 should plan early its priorities, among which could be the development of the “Danube” region, of the small and medium-sized European towns, energy efficiency. This was the position shared by Head of State Rosen Plevneliev and the President of the European Committee of the Regions Markku Markkula, who held talks at 2 Dondukov street today. Markkula is visiting Bulgaria to take part in the annual Webit.Festival, which will be opened by President Rosen Plevneliev on 19 April in Sofia Tech-Park.
Head of State Rosen Plevneliev and Markku Markkula exchanged opinions on the instruments to promote innovations, technologies and entrepreneurship with a focus on European towns and regions. The main priority the European Committee of the Regions has set is to ensure sustainable development to create new jobs, Markkula said and briefed the President on the recent initiatives of the consultative body of the EU for encouraging the cooperation between the young people from different European regions and improving their entrepreneurships skills.
Among the initiatives of the committee are the creation of “camps for innovations” in different European regions, which will stimulate the young Europeans to jointly develop innovative ideas for doing business. President Rosen Plevneliev encouraged the creation of a “camp for innovations” in Bulgaria and said that it can be located in some region in North Bulgaria.
European funds should follow not selected local authorities, but sensible projects of the European municipalities and regions. This to a large extent requires also changing the way of thinking on a regional level and Bulgaria is making progress in this respect. The country should be a platform for the development not only of the business, but also of the regions, it was further highlighted at the talks.