On Wednesday the 27th June 2018, The Red House debated the effectiveness of the European Union’s funding schemes, asking whether it makes sense to relate the allocation of funds to the extent to which a member state adheres to European values.
A full-length Bulgarian-language recording of this event can also be accessed by clicking here
About the debate:
Will the European Commission’s proposal to restrict access to funds for countries that do not respect the rule of law achieve its objectives? Should there be a special fund to finance projects which support European values, as proposed by the European Parliament? Or, to put it more concisely – can European money create European values?
In recent years, we have repeatedly seen how European money has been used to finance anti-European policies or sponsor corrupt schemes. Will the new European Parliament and European Commission proposals succeed in stopping these practices and ensuring that European funds are invested in improving the processes of European integration?
To find out more, either watch our video highlights at the top of this page or proceed to the full-length Bulgarian-language video, which you can reach by clicking here.
To access our full multimedia archives or to find out how to stay informed about upcoming TTT debates, take a look at our media section below.
Participants:
Speakers:
Boryana Dimitrova – Sociologist, University Lecturer and Founder & Director of one of the largest independent agencies for social and marketing research in Bulgaria, Alpha Research
Tomislav Donchev – Deputy Prime Minister of Bulgaria and former Minister for European Funds and Economic Policies (2014-2017).
Apostol Dyankov – Regional head of Green Economy for the WWF’s Danube-Carpathian Programme. Apostol Dyankov’s work is dedicated to promoting more sustainable and transparent public and private funding structures for environmental and climate policies. He is involved in consultations with the civic sector for the development of the new EU Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for the period of 2021-2027.
Vihar Georgiev – Lecturer in the Department of European Studies at The University of Sofia. Vihar Georgiev also writes for the Journal of European Public Policy, the Journal of Common Market Studies and European Security and is a member of the Academic Association for Contemporary European Studies (UACES) and the American Political Studies Association (APSA).
Andrey Novakov – MEP for GERB (part of the EPP group) & Chief Negotiator of the European Parliament on the EU’s Cohesion Policy post-2020.
Moderation:
Polina Paunova works as a talk-show host for BITelevision & as a journalist at Mediapool.bg
Debate media:
English-language video highlights of this debate can be found at the top of the page and a full-length, Bulgarian-language recording of the discussion can also be accessed by clicking here.
To access our full debate archives and to keep informed of media content from all other TTT debates, take a look at/follow us on our media platforms, where we regularly publish recordings and inform our followers about upcoming debates
Furthermore, you can stay informed about all recordings and live streams from The Red House by subscribing to their YouTube channel, which you can reach by clicking here.
Debate series:
This debate is part of a series of debates which have looked at important EU topics from a variety of perspectives as part of an international project entitled Trans-European Debates on the European Parliament (TEDEP).
These TEDEP debates have taken place with the support of the European Parliament and have been organised by the Time to Talk members, The Centre for Cultural Decontamination (Belgrade), deBuren (Brussels) and The Red House (Sofia).
Although the European Parliament supports these debates, it has nothing to do with their content and cannot be held responsible for any theses, comments and/or opinions expressed during the discussions.
