At the conference, the White Paper was presented with examples of good practices from three Balkan countries in collaboration between businesses, municipalities and academia.
The White Paper has been issued for the first time in the region and presents the necessity of collaboration and dialogue between real sector, institutions, governmental and non-governmental organizations, academia structures, research and informational centers and others, who actively working in the field of :
– urban sustainability;
– local inheritance;
– sustainable manufacturing and agriculture (about soil, forest and biomass);
– quality of air and its influence on human health and environment;
– energy and renewable resources, etc.
The focuses of the content are the good practices in The Republic of Bulgaria, The Republic of Northern Macedonia and The Republic of Serbia.
“We started with these three countries – Bulgaria, as a leader in the region, Serbia and Northern Macedonia. We will upgrade the “White Book” with a digital platform, in which we will make all good practices accessible, so that we could better fulfill the goals for sustainable development of the UN“.
Mrs. Tsvetelina Tsvetanova, President of BSDI
Speakers in the conference were :
Sultanka Petrova – Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Policy of the Republic of Bulgaria;
Prof. Petranka Fileva – Deputy Chair of the United Nations Association of Bulgaria;
Ivan Neykov, Ph. D. – Chair of the Management Board of the Bulgarian Institute for Labour and Social Policy;
Mayors of 5 Northern Macedonian municipalities;
Academia professors from France, Northern Macedonia and Bulgaria;
and the President of the trade union partners (Federation of Transport Trade Unions in Bulgaria).
The audience was composed of different diplomats representatives from Bulgaria, Morocco and Belgium
The initiative was supported by Eva Paunova-Maidel from Brussels, a member of the European Parliament from GERB / ENP.
The topics of Circular economy; sustainable partnerships of the Balkan countries and the fulfillment of Goal 17 “Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development” from the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development were discussed in the agenda of the conference, as well as several Memorandums for Collaboration were signed as a conclusion of the program, between the BISD and municipalities from The Republic of Northern Macedonia:
– by Mayor Boris Georgievski on behalf of the municipality of Gazi Baba;
– by Mayor Velimir Smilevski on behalf of the municipality of Butel;
– by Mayor Aleksandar Naumovski on behalf of the municipality of Giorche Petrov;
– by Mayor Atse Kotcevski on behalf of the municipality of Veles;
– by Mayor Blagoy Bochvarski on behalf of the municipality of Shtip.
BSDI 