As a member of BusinessEurope, the Bulgarian Industrial Association (BIA) has the honor and responsibility to coordinate the program of the business community during the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the European Union in March 2018.
In this regard, the Executive President of the BIA Mr. Bojidar Danev has sent a letter to the Minister of the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the EU in 2018 Mrs. Lilyana Pavlova, which includes the agenda of the BIA connected to the Presidency.
The key points of BIA’s program are:
- Meeting with the participation of the Prime Minister of Bulgaria (held in Sofia in February 2018) and the President and Director General of BusinessEurope together with the Chairman of the Managing Board of the BIA;
- Meeting of the Presidents of the member federations of BusinessEurope (in Sofia on the 17-18 of May 2018). During this visit we count as very important to hold a meeting with the President of the Republic of Bulgaria (17 May);
- Meeting of the Employers’ Group of the European Economic and Social Committee (in Sofia, March 2018), among other meetings together with the EESC;
- Participation of the Ambassador of Bulgaria to the EU in Brussels in a meeting with the permanent delegates in BusinessEurope (Brussels, December 2017 or the beginning of January 2018).
During the Bulgarian Presidency several informal meetings of the Council of Ministers will also be held, in which the BIA will be given the opportunity to participate as a part of the European employers:
- Tripartite social summit, planned for March 2018. The BIA have already participated in the last summit in March 2017;
- Council on competitiveness;
- Council on employment and social matters – the meeting in 2018 should be held in Bulgaria, in which are invited for participation employers’ organizations and trade unions, members of the European social partners.
Meanwhile, the BIA has proposed two priorities to BusinessEurope for establishing legislation in support of digital economy and for creating new models for cooperation between business and education. They are supported by BusinessEurope and will be included in the general priorities, which would be presented to the European Council.
