February 22, 2010



National Assembly President Tsetska Tsacheva received, February 22, 2010, the Bulgarian team, winner of the first prize at the European Parliament’s competition for students in Strasbourg, named “Evroskola”. Students from 22 European countries took part in the event. Bulgaria was represented by the group of students and teachers from the high school for foreign languages "St. Methodius" in Sofia.

One of the students, Desislava Lazarova, gave the chair of parliament an account of the visit in the European Parliament in January, and noted that there the team has had the opportunity to learn a lot not only about the EU Parliament, but about themselves as well. She pointed out that participants were divided into six competing groups, to discuss topical issues of the European Union - the future of Europe, the issues of poverty and social exclusion, environment and climate change, the policies of employment, how to tackle unemployment and democracy in general. Then each group has nominated its own president and reporter who have prepared and submitted a report before the assembly of the European Parliament, in the presence of the other participants in the competition. Two of the nominated reporters and one of the presidents in the six groups were also representatives of the Bulgarian team. The report on "Combating poverty and social exclusion" was the first "adopted" document to mark the current European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion - 2010.

National Assembly President Tsetska Tsacheva stressed how pleased she was to meet with young and already successful people and underscored the importance of children as the most valuable capital of Bulgaria. I had the chance to meet with successfull IT talents , mathematicians, athletes, children who have reached the top in the field of art, and in every other field and added that these young people should receive the support of the institutions and the civil society.

“You should not lose your zeal, the incentive received in Strasbourg, because politics means every one of us is involved”, Tsetska Tsacheva told the young audience. “I would be very happy if the interest provoked by the European Parliament, transfers to our national parliament, because it is no less interesting and what happens in Strasbourg, happens in our National Assembly as well”. She added that many young people are frequent visitors to the parliament. The Speaker of the National Assembly wished the students good health and asked them to make good profit of their time at school. “I will be happy to meet you soon, as members of the National Assembly, and then of the European Parliament”, said Tsetska Tsacheva.