MESSAGES IN THE MEDIA

Tea Cimini, Tina Vulevic and Anton Rizor Co-Editors-in-Chief 7 Messages in the Media 8 2017 By: Alen Hristov 9 Messages in the Media The Preparation for the Presidency of the Council of the European Union in 2018 From January 2018 to July 2018, Bulgaria hosted the Presidency of the Council of the European Union. [...] 7 In late-February, however, a report on the implementation of the plan for the preparation of the Bulgarian presidency of the Council of the EU published on the official website of the presidency demonstrated that the preparation in the first half of 2017 was relatively delayed.[8] Problematic issues comprised shortage of trained staff, a poor coordination between responsible institutions, and a. [...] Surprisingly, however, in April and May, both Prime Minister Ognyan Gerdzhikov and Deputy PM Zlateva assured the Bulgarian public that the provisional government achieved positive results in executing the preparation program of the presidency of the Council of the EU.[10][11] In June, the Minister of the Presidency of the Council of the EU, Lilyana Pavlova, further indicated that Bulgaria was read. [...] The leader of the European People’s Party (EPP), Joseph Doll, for instance, concluded in December that Mariya Gabriel was impeccable and hardworking commissioner who would always fight for the good of Bulgaria and Europe.[52] 14 2017 Year in Review The preparation of the Presidency of the Council of the EU was perhaps the greatest concern for the Bulgarian government in 2017. [...] In general, the Bulgarian government did an excellent job (given the relatively poor economy and the overall situation in the country) in preparing the presidency of the EU, thus improving the country’s reputation in front of the European family of nations.