February 23-24, 2009

The Seminar was organized by the Regional Secretariat for Parliamentary Cooperation in South East Europe ,the Technical Assistance and Information Exchange Unit within the EU Enlargement Directorate and by the Bulgarian Ministry of Agriculture and Foods.
The Minister of Agriculture and Foods, Valery Tcvetanov delivered the opening speech. During the discussions, he stated that it was extremely important for Bulgaria to start applying the European concept for control on the processing of foods, right from the beginning until the products reach the consumers table. He emphasized that in order to accomplish this goal, Bulgaria should adequately harmonize its legislation with the European one.

The production of safe foods is becoming more and more important, due to the increased demand and commerce of alimentary products and the world globalization, he underscored. Mr. Tzvetanov also stressed that the agricultural production of the country needed to become more competitive in order to get access to the world markets and at the same time had to preserve its biodiversity and natural resources. He added that small businesses in agriculture and disadvantaged agricultural areas should receive more government attention.

The Seminar was attended by members and officials coming from the parliaments of the countries, participating in the South East Cooperation Process and the Bulgarian parliament. Lecturers provided by the Unit for Technical Assistance and Information Exchange of the EU General Directorate for Enlargement ,as well as experts in the field from Bulgaria, acquainted the participants with the key principles of the European food safety legislation.

Bulgarian and Romanian lecturers shared the legislative experience, accumulated in the process of negotiating the accession of their countries to the European Union.