Talk:Bulgaria

This isn't a forum page to chat about the article

This page is to discuss the subject and not to chat about the article -- Carl Jenkins (talk) 08:15, 12 April 2011 (UTC)

The intro isn't funny

The intro needs some humour. Over the last few years I've noticed country entries steering less towards humour and more towards boring insult. Shape up people!

Missing Major Cultural Points

The article fails to mention some of the major points in Bulgaria culture like:

-- Carl Jenkins (talk) 08:15, 12 April 2011 (UTC)

• National flag is Adidas logo

• All business meetings are conducted outside of McDonalds waiting for the other person to arrive.

• Every Bulgarian who owns a business is part of the mafia.

• Every Bulgarian who owns a car is part of the Car-Mafia mafia.

• A white cheese called Sirene is used on and for absolutely everything from eating to sanitizing surgical instruments. It's literally food duct tape.

• Bulgaria's political system is an Adidacracy run by the Adidas Mafia - this is actually true.

• The national pastime (besides standing outside of McDonalds waiting for someone to arrive) is popcorn parties where you quietly eat popcorn, avoiding eye contact with others.

• In their entire lives, Bulgarians know only 4 foods: baked pickles, baked white cheese, baked onions and baked pork. These ingredients are mixed with much oil to create the Bulgaria's only 4 dishes: Rakia, Shopska Salad, Moussaka and Banitsa.

• Bulgaria is the proud home to 90% of the world's dog/cat population.

• The country's top music, Chalga, is a cross between hindi and a piece of shit. Azis, the Chalga King sings as a gay man acting like a straight man acting like a gay man because doing otherwise would result in Adidas Mafia death.

• All Bulgarians become taxi driver after the age of 35

Missing Minor Cultural Points

-- Carl Jenkins (talk) 08:15, 12 April 2011 (UTC)

• Bulgarian people only wear black
• There is only one hair cut in Bulgaria
• Bulgarian men shave their legs, arms and chests
• Everyone turns off their hot water boilers at night to save money

Gossip to be deleted

Why, oh why в секцията Food някой е сложил огромен пасаж за Бойко Борисов?

Aaaah! The Wombles are invading! -- (but) Untrue  Whhhy?Whut?How? *Back from the dead* 00:22, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

^bullshittt

100% true

indeed true to the very root, but there are also not mentioned aspects, the same as the mentioned ones :))))

you a straight up fool man

you dumb bro

Who on earth is the uneducated and frivolous writer of this SCANDALOUS AND COMPLETELY FICTIONAL article?!! People who read this will think that Bulgaria is some sort of dump or civil war zone. Whoever you are,I have my eye on you,an as soon as I find out your identity,you will be put on trial for Historic Slander and abuse of public web space with the intent of slander.

Oh and by the way,since we are so backward and all,you WILL be considered GUILTY UNTIL PROVEN INNOCENT!!!!!

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DJ Mixerr 19:01, January 2, 2011 (UTC) User:DJ Mixerr/sig

Bulgaria's EU Communication Strategy

While Bulgaria continued down the path of political and economic reform in its effort to join the European Union (EU), the Bulgarian government embarked on a public diplomacy campaign to improve the overall image of Bulgaria among European citizens. In order to enhance the prospects for meeting its goal of joining the organization in January 2007, in January 2002 the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Bulgaria established a formal Communication Strategy aiming to create a more modernized and democratic public image of Bulgaria. The Strategy is an example of an interesting case of public diplomacy where the Bulgarian government simultaneously works to improve the country’s image abroad while also encouraging broader understanding of the EU-membership and support for the required reforms at home. Bulgarians do not have sex; Dati was born to a Moroccan father, a layer named Mbarek, and an Algerian mother, named Fatima-Zohra. Rachida Dati is the second child of a family of 12. After Sarkozy's victory on 6 May 2007, she was appointed Minister of Justice. Her first changes were received coldly by professionals, with public demonstrations. On 23 January 2009 Nicolas Sarkozy announced that Dati would take the second position on the UMP list for Île-de-France constituency in the 'European' Parliament; she sits on the editorial board of the French version of the Huffington Post, where she will write a weekly column about Casablanca & Brussels. Turkish government’s directorate on religion has approved a donation worth 6 million euro to construct what will become the largest mosque in the country.

Welcome to Bulgaria

The new mosque will be located in the southern Bulgarian town of Kardzhali, which hosts a large ethnic Turkish population, and will be able to fit 1,500 people. The new mosque in the Vazrozhdentsi quarter of Kardzhali will be the most expensive public building in the district, the Trud daily reported, citing Ferad Said, a member of the mosque board in the town. Two local companies are bidding to snap up the construction project. One is known for having built a new Muslim school in the nearby town of Momchilgrad, which was also funded by Turkey. The firm has also built a Turkish-owned factory for rubber items called Teklas, which Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov opened in October 2011. Kardzhali’s existing mosque is able to fit all the local worshippers according to fire officials. Seven years ago the local authorities initiated a project for a new mosque near a residential quarter but a protest petition terminated it. The new “super-mosque”, for which Turkey is donating not only the money but also the design, will be visible from any point in the town of Kardzhali.

Within the national campaign the goals of the Communication Strategy included: ensuring a high level of support for integration into the EU; keeping the Bulgarian public informed and involved in the accession process; and drawing attention to both the procedural steps towards accession, as well as the content and rationale of the reforms and the ensuing commitments for Bulgaria. A key objective in the effort was the involvement of all age, social and professional groups of Bulgarian society, including those who have not yet been interested in the EU-integration process. Internationally, the communication strategy also targeted various groups – the public at large, leaders and opinion makers, social and political institutions of the member-states, as well as those of the other aspirant countries, and the institutions at the transnational Union level. The Strategy’s aim was to project and fortify the image of Bulgaria as a stable political and economic system, good investment environment, a rich cultural and tourist destination, as well as to inform EU citizens of what Bulgaria had accomplished in its preparation for accession.

To reach these goals the Communication Strategy engaged government institutions and civil society using public awareness campaigns, discussions, conferences, workshops, and international forums. It sponsored projects to disseminate informational materials and set up Internet portals (Evroportal, Euractiv ) and information centers in both the EU countries and Bulgaria. Other activities included publications in prestigious European media and specialized journals and participation in major EU events.

The Communication Strategy was implemented through the 2002-2006 Action Plan and annual Work Programs approved by the Council of Ministers. Each year the Council of Ministers adopted a specific Work Program that aimed to implement a particular element of the overall strategic goals.

The 2002 Work Program coincided with the most demanding stage of the accession process where a number of complicated issues were being negotiated during a time when a bulk of unpopular reforms were beginning to be put into effect. At the outset, Bulgaria relied on the experience of the EU member-countries and the other candidate-countries in implementing its Communication Strategy. For example, significant technical assistance provided by the Dutch embassy in Bulgaria was pivotal to the early success of the program (for more information, see: MATRA; and here: Diplomatic Dispatches - The Dutch ambassador discusses the ransition from national and multilateral diplomacy to public diplomacy). In these early stages of Bulgaria’s public diplomacy campaign, the first priority was to create a decentralized network of contacts, both individuals and institutions, which could help in the implementation of the communication strategy. In order to reach the various groups of citizens, over 100 partner organizations - governmental and non-governmental, media, academia, professional and business groups and individuals, were mobilized to ensure widespread and comprehensive circulation of the message. At this point, the specific goal was to develop a unified approach towards building a positive image of Bulgaria, not only as laid out by the Communication Strategy, but also as a national concept to better coordinate the work of all institutions. In particular, the international campaign included a series of political, cultural and other activities, such as: presenting information on Bulgarian history, government, and its contribution to world culture in the European Convent on the Day of Bulgarian Culture; harmonization of the embassies’ web pages to project a unified image of Bulgaria as a candidate-country; providing special press conferences for international journalists; publishing information about Bulgaria in the “Europe Diplomatic Magazine�? and other European print media; participating in the Open Doors Day in Berlin, Strasbourg etc. and in the Europalia 2002 (an annual event meant to improve European public awareness of the guest country's cultural heritage); in addition to other efforts aiming at the broad dissemination of informational materials to people within the EU.

2003 was a crucial year for Bulgaria in that it established a concrete time and political framework for the actual accession into the EU. Because the integration process enjoyed an extremely high support among Bulgarians, the government was able to focus more on the international aspect of the communication campaign. The work of the diplomatic missions in the international campaign was supported by the Bulgarian communities and their organizations abroad. The State Agency for the Bulgarians Abroad was responsible for the mobilization and coordination of their resources and outreach efforts. Numerous cultural events, including celebrations of national holydays, exhibitions and distribution of Bulgarian art and cinema, and concerts displaying the Bulgarian musical culture were arranged in each EU-member country with the cooperation of local authorities and organizations. In addition, several governmental institutions were engaged in publishing advertising materials and developing multimedia products that would present the country’s contribution and development in various spheres such as business, economy, culture, tourism, social policy etc.

In 2004, the negotiations on accession were coming to an end and Bulgaria proceeded from codifying the required EU standards into its legal system toward actual implementation of the legal regulations into practice. Yet, 2004 was a hectic year for the EU, signified by robust debates regarding the adoption of the European constitution, the enlargement of the EU to ten new countries, and the election of a European Parliament and a European commission from all 25 countries. At the same time, the Bulgarian public support for integration into the EU remained unusually high despite the approaching accession date, which, based on the experience of other candidate countries, often results in the adoption of a more realistic point of view and a drop in public support for reform. Therefore, the 2004 Work Program focused on the national campaign in order to educate the so-called "uninformed optimists." At an international level, it was during this period that Bulgaria was able to receive important feedback on its public diplomacy efforts from EU states. The Bulgarian Media Coalition undertook a Survey on the image of Bulgaria in foreign media to help track the success of the communication strategy and interpret the messages that it had sent abroad.

In 2005, the priority was on the signing of the EU Accession Treaty with Bulgaria, an event that has attracted significant public attention at home and abroad. In order to be successful, Bulgaria continued to consistently explain to the European public the results of the closed negotiations with the EU, as well as the potential positive contribution that the country would provide as an EU member in all spheres of the economic and public life. Appropriately, efforts were aimed at highlighting the signing of the Accession treaty and presenting Bulgaria as a promissing member-state in order to maximize the speed with which the accession treaty is ratified by EU member states.

The success of Bulgarian public diplomacy in the framework of the Communication Strategy can be estimated based on the results of the (Eurobarometer surveys) between 9 May and 14 June 2005 among the citizens of the European Union, the two accession-countries (Bulgaria and Rumania) and the two candidate-countries (Croatia and Turkey). This Eurobarometer was carried out in an atmosphere strongly marked by debates over the text of the European Constitution and the ratification process, on the eve of the French and Dutch referenda. It is noteworthy that only half of the respondents in the 25 current Member States were in favour of further enlargement of the European Union in future years (50%). This result has fallen by 3 points since 2004 and is followed by a proportional increase in the level of opposition to the idea (38%). In the same time, a comparative analysis shows that Bulgaria was making progress in improving its positions abroad. Even though there had been a group approach to Bulgaria and Rumania and despite the fact that both countries had been following a parallel pace of negotiations, one in two citizens were in favour of Bulgaria joining the European Union (50% in favor; 36% against), whereas opinions seemed to be more divided with regards to Rumania (45% in favor; 41% against). Within these 50%, Bulgaria enjoyed better acceptance from the citizens of the new Member States (70% in favor of Bulgaria becoming a part of the European Union), while only 46% of the citizens in the 15 old Member States were positively inclined towards the country’s future accession.

In the same time, considering the status of Bulgaria’s efforts at public diplomacy before the launch of the Communication strategy, it can be concluded that success had been achieved in several respects. First, the communication strategy provided for an effective mechanism for partnership and coordination between government institutions, local and regional authorities, non-governmental organizations, business, and media. Second, initiatives were no longer directed to work exclusively with the institutions of the EU, the Member States and candidates for membership. Third, information materials in foreign languages on the candidacy of Bulgaria for EU membership were broadly disseminated and the communication with the average citizens was increased substantially. Fourth, considerable work was done to attract the attention of foreign media to Bulgaria as a topic of interest, and numerous cultural events intended for popularizing Bulgaria abroad were organized. In addition, as a result of the national campaign three-quarters of Bulgarians felt more attached to Europe. Although it decreased slightly trust in the EU in Bulgaria remained higher than the EU average and in most of the EU-member states.

Overall, the most important indicator of the success of the Communication Strategy was the positive feedback coming from the European Union. At the time, the EU's Enlargement webpage commented that Bulgaria is widely considered to be the most likely of the Balkan countries to join the EU in 2007.

Related links: Bulgarian Council of Ministers on the Communication Strategy for the Preparation of Bulgaria for Membership in the European Union European Commission Communication Strategy

Great copy-pasta. Of course I would love to read it, but it measures at 7.3 on the tl;dr scale. Nominally Humane! 02:24 06 Apr