Rousse Hosts a Forum on Bulgaria and Romania‘s 10 Years of EU Membership

On 20^th of October, the city of Rousse (at border with Romania) is hosting a discussion forum "10 Years of Membership in the European Union: Future Prospects." The event is attended by Bulgarian MEPs Andrei Novakov and Georgi Pirinski and their Romanian counterparts, Maria Grapini and Viktor Boshtinaru. The organisers are the information offices of the European Parliament of Bulgaria and Romania. The forum will take stock of the membership of Bulgaria and Romania in the European Union and will outline the way for the two countries ahead.

At the beginning of the forum, the participants discussed the benefits, lessons learnt and future prospects resulting from Bulgaria's and Romania's EU membership. They also discussed the influence of the membership on peole’s lives.

The experts also analyzed the differences in people’s attitudes at the beginning of the membership and how they changed 10 years later. It was discussed how people's enthusiasm gradually decreased over time.

The second part of the discussion will focus on preparing Bulgaria for the presidency of the Council of the EU.