Minister Nickolay Mladenov is among the key speakers at the Salzburg Trilogue this year (link to the site), which has gathered in one place politicians with representatives of business and the academic circles. This year the forum focuses on the ethical foundations of the economy of the 21st century and on the growth prospects for the countries in the Black Sea basin. The meeting is organised jointly by the Austrian Foreign Ministry and the Bertelsmann Foundation.

The meeting is chaired by the former Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel and its participants include the Foreign Ministers of Greece, Ukraine, Georgia and Azerbaijan, representatives of leading European companies like RWE, OMV, BASF, etc., as well as WTO Director General Pascal Lamy.

The Bulgarian Foreign Minister is a keynote speaker in the panel on the development of the Black Sea region. “The Black Sea countries must follow the EU example and on the example of the Europe 2020 Strategy they must develop a common plan for stimulating sustainable growth in their countries, but by working together,” Minister Mladenov pointed out. He stressed in his presentation that the Black Sea region does not need new regional structures, but concrete projects involving countries willing to participate in the building of the democratic institutions, in the energy and transport sectors, in the fight against crime, in tourism, etc. “The sources for growth during recent years – cheap credits, foreign investment – have been depleted; now the sources for growth need to be sought in more traditional models - exports and industrial production. The Bulgarian economy demonstrated a substantial growth in its export in recent months, although we are still far from the end of the crisis. Now is the time to streamline the administration and to modernise the governance through clear reforms, because not only Bulgaria, but many other countries in the region as well cannot afford to maintain expensive and inefficient  red tape. This is a problem for all countries in the Black Sea region,” Minister Mladenov concluded.