The unique experience of the Bulgarian School of Politics with training young political and civic leaders was presented by Julian Popov – Chairman of the Board of Directors of the School, at the international conference “Central and Eastern Europe’s Transition and Change in the Middle East”. He introduced the participants with the Network of the Schools of Political Studies at the Council of Europe and highlighted their role for encouraging pluralism, human rights protection and rule of law.

Julian Popov talked about capacity building for democratic institutions along with Sonja Licht – President of the Belgrade Fund of Political Excellence, Serbia and Andrey Kovatchev – Member of the European Parliament. Over 150 participants from Europe, North Africa and the USA came to Sofia to discuss changes in the Arab countries and the transition in Central and Eastern Europe. Political leaders, activists, journalists and representatives of NGOs attended the forum. Among the participants were Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations, foreign ministers of Bulgaria, Hungary, Portugal, Sweden, Greece, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Thorbjorn Jagland, Secretary-General of the Council of Europe, etc. The conference was organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the opening remarks had the Prime Minister of Bulgaria – Boyko Borissov.