How Bulgaria Performed in 2014: Diplomats' Point of View

Novinite has asked the ambassadors with whom it has cooperated over the past two months to briefly assess what 2014 was like for Bulgaria.

Just over a week into 2015, we are publishing the answers of those who have responded so far.

They are ordered chronologically, with Morocco's Ambassador to Bulgaria, H.E. Latifa Akharbach, coming on top after having been the first to respond.

Mrs Akharbach believes 2014 was marked by "strengthening of the civil society and attachment to the European values," despite "the multi-faceted crisis lived by Bulgaria in 2014, for internal reasons and because of the complexity and the adversity of the geopolitical situation." She points to two the fact that civil society has been enforced "as a protagonist and an important actor in the acceleration of the transition and the preservation of the democratic cape. More audible and better listened to, more determined and better considered, the civil society from now on, is at the heart of the dynamics of the current change and evolution in this wonderful country."

?I also insist to remind that twice at least, despite the exceptional tough crisis which dominated in 2014, the Bulgarian people reiterated its attachment to the European values: during the European elections of May and on the occasion of the early elections of October," she notes further on.

In the words of Ukrainian Ambassador H.E. Mykola Baltazhy, 2014 was "rather good" for Bulgaria, with the country having earned "a new, pro-European government, having reached a coalition agreement and a clear program." Mr Baltazhy's opinion is also based on the fact that "there is political stability which will be boosted through reform, and elections are not on the agenda anymore."

...