Bulgaria to Get EU Funding Specially Allocated to Education

Bulgarian Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski attended the opening ceremony for the 2013/2014 academic year at the University of Forestry in Sofia on Monday. Photo BGNES

Bulgaria is about to win EU funding specially allocated to education in the next programming period, according to Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski.

Speaking Monday at the opening ceremony for the 2013/2014 academic year at the University of Forestry in Sofia, Oresharski commented on a statement of EU Regional Policy Commissioner Johannes Hahn expressing doubts in the capacity of Bulgaria's Education Ministry to manage a separate program, taking into account that in the ongoing programming period it risked losing a substantial amount of EU funding under the Human Resources Development and the Administrative Capacity Operational Programs and the special Science and Education OP requested by Bulgaria could overlap with other operational programs.

He welcomed the efforts of the University of Forestry in Sofia to create an academic environment "which not only awards certain qualifications but encourages students to demonstrate entrepreneurial spirit and think about their professional fulfillment."

Oresharski went on to declare that the socialist-led government would opt for a pragmatic approach as the key to the success of the education system in Bulgaria.

"We will strive to achieve a closer connection between academic life and the real economy," the Prime Minster vowed, stressing that any serious reform needed certain resources in order to be successfully completed.