Bulgaria held an Informal Meeting of the Directors General of the NSOs of the Balkan countries on 6 September 2008 in the village of Bansko. The meeting aimed at discussing the cooperation development in the field of statistics – scope, priorities, main forms of cooperation, and concrete future steps.
The meeting was attended by the directors or their representatives of the statistical institutions of Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Romania, Republic of Serbia, Turkey, Croatia and Montenegro.
The scope, the management and the forms of cooperation in the Balkan region were discussed.
Opening addresses to the participants were read on behalf of Mr Georgui Parvanov - President of the Republic of Bulgaria and Mr. Daniel Valtchev -Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education and Science.
Mr. Vladimir Dimitrov – Regional Governor of Blagoevgrad region and Mr. Petar Bariykov - Deputy-Mayor of the village of Bansko took part in the opening of the meeting.
The meeting was opened by Mrs. Mariana Kotzeva – President of the Bulgarian National Statistical Institute. She presented the Framework of the Future Regional Institutional Statistical Cooperation.
Presentations were made also by Mr. Ivan Kovac – Director General of the Central Bureau of Statistics, Croatia and Mrs. Blagica Novkovska – Director of the State Statistical Office, FYROM.
All participants supported the idea for future development of the cooperation and joined activities in the Balkan Region, in compliance with the objectives and priorities of the European Union (three of the participating countries being MS, the remaining – candidates or potential candidates for EU membership).
The next step was to prepare a Draft Memorandum for Cooperation, containing the drawn up Map of Priorities and Cooperation Forms. This draft was discussed by the Presidents of the Balkan Statistical Offices during the 94th Conference of the NSIs Directors General (DGINS), held in Lithuania from 23 to 26 September 2008.
