Mladenov attended Thursday a discussion on the new EU long-term strategy for economic growth and development “Europe 2020”, organized by the delegation of the European Commission in Bulgaria and the Foreign Ministry.

The strategy is the focus of Thursday's meeting in Brussels of the EU members. The 27 leaders will try to reach consensus on the most important goals for EU for the next ten years. The priorities will be education, reducing poverty, employment, innovations, and reduction of carbon emissions.

The EU member states have to decide what could be done on a national level and at what price. The plan is expected to be approved on Thursday.

“It is not about how much we spend on innovations, but how many big companies really do so. In order for them to invest in Bulgaria, we need to create good conditions,” Minister Mladenov said, adding that it is important for the Bulgarian economy to develop not only ont he national level, but also to become a competitive power in Europe.

In his words, Bulgaria believes that cohesive actions and common goals are the key to smoothing the differences between the EU countries.

Bulgarian Minister for EU funds, Tomislav Donchev, who was also present at the discussion, explained that “Europe 2020” marks some basic goals for the EU countries but does not include all the fields Bulgaria should develop.

According to Donchev, the country's greatest contribution could be the development of a strategy plan “Bulgaria 2020” which should include the efforts of the entire society. In his words, Bulgaria should not have the illusions that all the initiatives in the strategy plan would be financed by the EU, but should rather look for other sources of national financing.

On Wednesday, the Foreign Ministry presented its official position on the “Europe 2020” plan. The spokeswoman of the Ministry, Vesela Cherneva, said that Bulgaria supports the ideas for economic growth and employment, and finds the presented goals for the country “ambitious, but achievable”.

“The European Union is based on compromises by the member states. I believe they will find the best solution that will satisfy all 27 countries,” Cherneva said.

Bulgaria hopes that the EU will keep in mind the country's specifics on improving the conditions for innovative activities and will try bring investments in this field to 3% of the country's GDP.

The only impossible goal for Bulgaria, according to Cherneva, would be reducing the poverty by 25%. In her words, due to the economic situation in the country, the reduction could be done by only 20%.

Tags: Europe 2020, EU, Nikolay Mladenov, Tomislav Donchev, Vesela Cherneva, strategy