The Rector Met with the Special Representative of the President of the Republic of Poland for the Three Seas Initiative

Beata Daszynska-Muzyczka, Ambassador- Special Envoy of the President of the Republic of Poland for the Three Seas Initiative, visited the UNWE and met with the Rector Prof. Dr. Dimitar Dimitrov.

The meeting was attended by Andrzej Krezel, Counsellor-Consul at the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Sofia, and on behalf of the UNWE - by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Yanko Hristozov, Vice Rector for International Affairs and Prof. Dr. Rumen Brussarsky, Dean of the Finance and Accounting Faculty.

Andrzej Krezel, Beata Daszynska-Muzyczka, Prof. Dr. Dimitar Dimitrov, Prof. Dr. Rumen Brussarsky, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Yanko Hristozov

Prof. Dr. Dimitar Dimitrov presented the UNWE and emphasized that it is a business university with over 100 years of tradition, the largest, oldest and most prestigious university of economics in Bulgaria and Southeast Europe, which educates 20 thousand students. The University offers 90 Master's and 53 Bachelor's degree programmes and it is part of the elite ENGAGE.EU university network in partnership with eight leading European economic universities from Germany, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands, France, Austria, Spain and Finland. Prof. Dimitrov pointed out that since the establishment of the University its lecturers and graduates have been prominent representatives in the state administration, business and non-governmental sector, prestigious international organizations and financial institutions. Only in recent years 11 alumni have been Prime Ministers of Bulgaria, including the first woman Prime Minister. Among the alumni of the UNWE are 5 Presidents of the National Assembly, more than 120 ministers and 10 Governors of the BNB as well as the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund Kristalina Georgieva and the Director General of Eurostat Mariana Kotseva who besides being alumni were also lecturers at the University.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Yanko Hristozov, Vice Rector for International Affairs, presented the international partnerships pointing out that the UNWE, in addition to the Erasmus+ Programme, has signed memoranda of cooperation with three Polish universities: University of Euroregional Economy /WSGE/ - Warsaw, University of Warsaw and WSB University - Gdansk.

Prof. Dr. Rumen Brussarsky introduced to the guests the Finance and Accounting Faculty and emphasized that it is emblematic for the University, its history begins in 1920, when it was established as the Faculty of Finance and Administration - one of the first two Faculties of the then Free University of Political and Economic Sciences. However, the birth date of today's Faculty is considered to be 1952 - the establishment of Karl Marx Institute of Higher Education, when it was named the Faculty of Finance and Accounting.

Beata Daszynska-Muzyczka outlined that the Three Seas Initiative is of key importance for promoting the economic exchanges, investments and increasing security of energy supply. During the meeting she highlighted the ideas for expanding the thematic scope of the Initiative with a new theme - promoting the tourism and cultural exchanges in Eastern Europe as a real factor for bringing the countries of our region closer together.

"Projects like this provide an opportunity to strengthen and expand the cooperation not only between the countries that are part of the Three Seas Initiative, but also between the educational institutions and universities", said Beata Daszynska-Muzyczka.

Prof. Dr. Dimitar Dimitrov gave the guests as gift a book about Bulgaria as well as a book about Prof. Stephan Bobchev - the founder and first Rector of our university.

During the meeting, the opportunities for developing the cooperation in the education, research and innovation were discussed.

Future partnerships between the UNWE and universities from Poland through mobility, project development, research and organization of joint initiatives were also discussed.

In the Academic Hall Prof. Dr. Dimitar Dimitrov showed Beata Daszynska-Muzyczka and Andrzej Krezel the portraits of the personalities who has been awarded the Honorary Title of Doctor Honoris Causa of UNWE. The last three titles were conferred on Prof. Dr. Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, who is a graduate and lecturer at the UNWE, on Valdis Dombrovskis, Executive Vice President of the European Commission for an Economy that Works for People and on Dimitar Radev, Governor of the BNB. Beata Daszynska-Muzyczka was impressed to see among the honorees also Prof. Dr. Danuta Hubner, who was the first Polish Commissioner for Regional Policy in the European Commission /2004-2009/.