The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria Ekaterina Zaharieva officially opened the Regional Academy “The European Perspective for the Western Balkans”, organized by the Bulgarian School of Politics. It involves young leaders from seven Balkan countries, including Bulgaria. In front of the young people, Zaharieva confirmed Bulgaria’s support for the Euro-Atlantic integration of the Western Balkan countries and stressed that our country continued to persuade the skeptics of EU enlargement in its necessity.

“We are constantly working to persuade opponents of the idea of enlargement. The countries of the Western Balkans are much closer geographically to some skeptical countries than others in the EU”, Zaharieva said.

The Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister noted that the progress of the Western Balkan countries towards European integration depended on the concrete results they had to show in implementing the reforms. She stressed that no one outside can solve the problems on the Balkans without the countries in the region doing so.

“I am proud to be from the Balkans. We should not deny our history or our problems and throw them away. We need to solve them so that you, the youth, stay here and your countries become part of the EU”, Ekaterina Zaharieva pointed out.

Her visit ended with many questions from the participants and many photos.