International Conference on The Western Balkans and European Union. Lessons from Past Enlargements, Challenges to Further Integrations

An International Conference on the Western Balkans and European Union - Lessons from Past Enlargements, Challenges to Further Integrations was held at the university. At the opening of the Forum attended the Rector of UNWE Prof. Statty Stattev; Prof. Xavier Richet from the University Sorbonne Nouvelle-Paris, France, Coordinator of the BALKINT project; Assoc. Prof. Petar Chobanov, former Minister of Finance, lecturer at the UNWE; Prof. Veselin Minchev from the Economic Research Institute of Bulgarian Academy of Science; Prof. Nikolay Nenovsky from the University of Amiens, France. In the work of the Conference participated a lot of scientists from leading universities in France, Italy, Romania, Hungary, Serbia, Macedonia, USA and Albania.

Over the years the UNWE has approved as a natural attracting center for the implementation of significant national and international events, as an authoritative academic institution opened to scientific discussionя, ideas and meetings on key issues. So it is quite natural for UNWE to be a polite host of this prestigious Forum today, pointed out in his welcoming speech the Rector Prof. Statty Stattev. He outlined that the Conference has been in a sense a continuation of nearly a century-old tradition of our university and cited the words of the founder and first Rector of UNWE Prof. Stephan Bobchev who had determined as “an important feature” of the new university the establishment of “an academic relation and mutual acquaintance and study of the Balkan countries by inviting the “experts and lecturers” from these countries as well as by sending the Bulgarian professors to them.

From the right to the left: Prof. Xavier Richet, Prof. Nikolay Nenovsky, Prof. Statty Stattev, Assoc. Prof. Petar Chobanov, Prof. Veselin Minchev, Prof. Gancho Ganchev, Dean of the Economic Faculty of Neofit Rilsky South Western University in Blagoevgrad

The Rector determined the representation and relevance of the issues for discussion in the Conference as an extremely competent. The discussions will be exclusively useful not only for researchers but also for the state institutions, the business, non-governmental organizations and experts, outlined the Rector. He expressed his confidence that during the Forum there would be born many valuable ideas, would be held essential discussions and would be made fundamental conclusions which could be an important contribution to the research in the area. Prof. Stattev reminded also about Robert Schuman, one of the fathers of unification of our continent whose words sound more relevantly nowadays: "Europe will not be united at once or according to a special plan. It will be built through concrete achievements which first create a feeling of solidarity”.  

In the Large Conference Hall during the opening of the Forum

Prof. Stattev greeted the organizers and participants for the selection of topics with key importance for the Western Balkans and the European Union. He examined the wide range of discussing issues: from the economic growth and foreign investment, minorities and the Balkan nationalism to the implications of the Ukraine crisis for the regional energy security.

Prof. Statty Stattev (in the middle) is greeting the participants in the Conference.

It is a privilege for me to participate in this Conference, pointed out in his greeting speech Assoc. Prof. Petar Chobanov. He emphasized on the importance of the topic and the fact that in the process of integration our country had gained a considerable experience. The analysis of the actual issues included in the Programme is also a great challenge because they are important as for the economy and government as for the macroeconomic platform, geopolitics and strategies. We must try to find out the right solutions, to identify tasks for future researches, outlined Assoc. Prof. Chobanov.

Prof. Veselin Minchev from the Economic Research Institute of Bulgarian Academy of Science expressed his positive expectations from the work of the Conference. We must formulate and analyze the new issues and old answers in order to find an opportunity of going ahead, pointed out Prof. Minchev.

In the work of the Conference participated also Vice Rectors of UNWE

Thank you to the organizers of this event. It is the first Conference in the framework of the BALKINT project which will be followed by two Forums more and the final Conference will be held in September 2015 in Paris. We will also organize the publications from the Forums to be issued in Bulgarian, Serbian and Greek journals, informed about the upcoming events Prof. Xavier Richet.

The major challenge is whether the European Union has a positive impact on the Balkans, outlined Prof. Nikolay Nenovsky from the University of Amiens, France. He shared his expectations that participants in the Conference will give their expert forecasts.  Prof. Nenovsky expressed also his thankfulness to Prof. Richet for choosing the UNWE as a host of the first meeting and to Prof. Statty Stattev for the hospitability.

Participants in the International Conference

H.E. Xavier Lapeyre de Cabanes, Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of France to Bulgaria took part in the work of the Conference and delivered a report on the Future of the Balkans.

Xavier Lapeyre de Cabanes (on the left) and Prof. Statty Stattev

The Conference was held in the large Conference Hall and in the Small Conference Hall of the university. In the first panel were selected the reports and discussions on Economics and Government, in the second one – on Macroeconomic Performance and Institutional Environment, in the third panel were examined the topics related to the Geopolitics and Strategies.