On May 23th, 2012, the President of the Committee on European Affairs and Oversight of the European Funds (CEAOEF), Ms. Monika Panayotova, inaugurated the Annual Student Conference “The European Union – Contemporary Development and Future Perspectives”, organized by the Department of European Studies at the Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”. This year, the conference is dedicated to the financial crisis, youth unemployment, the Single Market, electronic transactions, and the future of the European project.

In her address to the audience, Ms. Panayotova commended the students for the choice of topic, which accentuates the present as well as the future of the European Union. She added that “the decisions that we make today determine what our future will be, what perspectives we will have tomorrow”.

Ms. Panayotova highlighted that it is very important that young people participate in the decision-making process and shape the processes related to youth policy in the country. She confirmed her personal participation in the preparation of the new Youth Law, which has already been adopted, and shared her satisfaction that the voice and opinion of the young people in the country will be heard through the commitment of the institutions. Ms. Panayotova encouraged the students to be brave and to formulate interesting ideas and arguments, motivating them with the opportunities to incorporate their ideas in the future statements of CEAOEF within the framework of political dialogue with the European Institutions.

In her presentation, Ms. Panayotova placed emphasis on several main issues which arise in the current context:

- the problem of the application or the violation of the EU’s rights and principles (Schengen, the Maastricht Criteria, the Euro zone) within the “young versus old” or “small versus big” member states approach;

- the problem of the political class’ “temptation” to recur to the national populist style of rhetoric and action, present in many member states;

- the issue how to use the potential of the Single Market in order to generate growth through its development in all of its forms, including the Digital Single Market; the removal of the existing restrictions on the free movement of people, as well as the improvement of EU’s competitiveness through investment in the countries from Central and Eastern Europe.

Ms. Panayotova shared her observation that different national and European papers on these topics suffer from a lack of vision and political will. With regard to this problem, she challenged students to put themselves in the shoes of those who govern today and reflect on “our tomorrow”, and to give their own, original and different answer to these pressing issues. She encouraged them to find a current definition of many modern problems such as the national debt and the global climate change, and added her own interpretation of the contemporary dimension of these concepts which requires that we make the right choices taking into account the effect they will have on the future generations.


Ms. Panayotova sought an answer to the question how we can transition from a financial crisis to intelligent and sustainable growth. In the eve of May 24th, she reminded the audience that education and culture are crucial for growth. She greeted students with the holiday and shared her hope that in the future, the Bulgarian people will place greater emphasis on holidays such as May 24th, which unite Europe and contribute to its cultural diversity and common identity. Ms. Panayotova pointed out that with its accession to the European Union Bulgaria brought the third alphabet in the European civilization’s culture (together with the Greek and Latin alphabet), the Cyrillic. She shared the Bulgarian Commissioner Ms. Kristalina Georgieva’s belief that the Cyrillic is the alphabet of the future enlargement of the European Union because countries which have already embarked on the road toward European integration such as the Western Balkans and the Eastern Partnership, also use it.

Ms. Panayotova reminded the audience of Winston Churchill’s words that “The pessimist sees difficulties in every opportunity; the optimist sees opportunities in every difficulty.” She called for students not to feel tempted to only notice the problems, but to also strive to propose plausible solutions. “Don’t be afraid to offer even unconventional solutions to the difficult problems because the contribution of every one of us generates the common dynamics. Think different and do not spare energy and efforts; only then can we have a European solution to the European crisis, greater trust and brave solutions,” she added.

Drawing an analogy to Barack Obama’s appeal during his electoral campaign “Yes, we can!”, Ms. Panayotova concluded her speech to the students with a question-challenge for them: “Yes, Europe can!?”