Meeting of the EU Club on the occasion of the assumption of the Presidency of the Council of EU by the Republic of Slovakia

The EU Club at BCCI welcomed the Presidency of the Council of the EU by the Republic of Slovakia at its regular meeting which took place on 6^th July at the Chamber. The EU Club at BCCI traditionally gathers every six months on the occasion of the change of the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU.

The topics discussed during the event organized by Enterprise Europe Network – the largest network in support of business, enjoyed great interest. More than 100 public officials, ambassadors, commercial counsellors of the EU member-states, representatives of the business and the media got acquainted to the results achieved during the Presidency of the Council of the EU by the Kingdom of the Netherlands and to the ambitious priorities of the Slovak Presidency.

Opening the meeting, the President of BCCI Tsvetan Simeonov shared interesting data from a survey recently held among the members of the Chamber regarding “Brexit”. One of the main conclusions from the attitudes of entrepreneurs was that the business sees the need for changes within the EU, coming from the position of continuing the membership and not from the position of leaving the Union. The “Brexit” will have direct negative consequences mainly for companies trading with the UK, rather than for the other Bulgarian companies. This was confirmed by the in-depth analysis made by the representative of UniCredit Bulbank, which is a sponsor of the EU Club.

The current economic topic was presented by Kristofor Pavlov, Chief Economist at UniCredit Bulbank, who introduced the guests to the need for a stable fiscal policy to help Bulgarian politicians offset the negative effects of “Brexit”. If the Bulgarian Government moves towards fiscal policy supporting economic growth, the country’s GDP levels will correspond to the ones projected before “Brexit”.

Pieter van Vliet, Deputy Head of Mission of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Bulgaria presented the results of the Dutch Presidency saying that emphasis was put on innovation, pragmatism and transparency, and that consuderable success was achieved in terms of inner market growth, financial stability, tackling unemployment, and migration crisis. Pieter van Vliet expressed gratitude to the Bulgarian Government for the partnership and constructive support.

H.E. Marián Jakubocy, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Slovakia to Bulgaria presented the priorities of the Slovak Presidency and assured the participants that serious effort will be put into tackling major challenges such as the migration crisis, terrorism, conflicts in the EU’s neighbouring areas, strengthening the Eurozone and handling the “Brexit” case.