This year’s third European Future Summit directs its focus to Bulgaria.

Being a member of the European Union since ten years, Bulgaria enjoys modest economic growth, political stability, and contributes to stability in the Black Sea region. At the same time, the country suffers from high income inequality as well as high unemployment and is criticized for the high degree of corruption, undermining the country’s administration and its reform efforts. Moreover, current developments, such as Bulgaria’s pivotal role in the European migration crisis, but also Bulgaria’s energy dependency on Russia, necessitate greater attention to the future of the country and its pivotal role and position in the European Union.

Among other aspects, such overarching trends and developments will serve the workshop as points of departure, in order to critically debate Bulgaria’s role in the European Union, hand in hand with the country’s potential future challenges and options. What will the future bring for Bulgaria, which challenges has the country to expect, and how will it cope with what’s ahead?

This indeed very complex field will be rendered manageable in the course of the workshop by jointly elaborating three future scenarios (with respect to the future of Bulgaria in the context of European politics). The progress in time from the present days up to 2035, together with general premises and drivers, will provide the basic analytic framework for this process. In this way – and mainly through open debate – core aspects of the topic will be identified and options for action derived.

The workshop is designed for academics, experts as well as actors from the organized civil society who are deeply invested in research, policy making, or civic engagement regarding politics, economy and society in Bulgaria and/or the politics of the European Union.

The workshop begins on Friday, November 24, 01:00 p.m. and ends on Saturday, November 25, 05:00 p.m. The workshop is organized in cooperation with the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Sofia and kindly supported by the Federal Foreign Office of Germany. Participation in the conference is free of charge. Please kindly note that the number of workshop participants is limited.

If you are interested in participating, we look forward to receiving a brief statement of interest, including your name and your professional affiliation.

A full program of the workshop will be posted on this website shortly.

For registration and further questions, please contact Ilona Rathert (ir@eab-berlin.eu, 030 895951-27).