Webinar to present the results of project 1-2023

On October 28, 2022, at 1 p.m., a webinar was held through the BigBlueButton platform to present the results of research project #1-2023 ‘The Effects of the European Sustainability Strategy on the Development of Agriculture in Bulgaria’. The project team is made up of professors and doctoral students from the departments of International Economic Relations and Agricultural Economics, as well as students in the IER and International Business majors at Dimitar Tsenov Academy of Economics - Svishtov.

The head of the project Prof. Tanya Gorcheva, DSc, opened the webinar and introduced the participants to the research topic: the EU develops and implements a sustainable and inclusive growth strategy to stimulate member economies to improve people's health and quality of life, while taking care for nature. This is the path set out by the European Green Deal, which will see EU economies become climate neutral by 2050. The strategy aims at a new approach to production and consumption, ensuring that agriculture, fisheries, and the food value chain will contribute, on one hand, to improving the way and standard of living in the EU, and on the other, it will make this production more globally competitive. The purpose of the research is to outline the nature of the current European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) to achieve sustainable growth in agriculture, so that the countries of the Union, including Bulgaria, can maintain a healthy lifestyle by introducing the principles of the green economy.

Assoc. Prof. Violeta Blazheva, PhD from the Department of Agricultural Economics presented the timeline of development and reforms of the CAP in the European Union, the main instruments of impact of this policy, as well as the state and prospects for agriculture in Bulgaria in the context of its membership in the EU.
The purpose of the presentation by Assoc. Prof. Zdravko Lyubenov, PhD, head of the Department of IER, was to present the programs and action plans in the EU aimed at stimulating sustainable development in agriculture. Assoc. Prof. Lyubenov described the viewpoints and arguments of supporters and opponents of the measures proposed by the EU for sustainable agrarian development. 
Head Assistant Ivaylo Petrov, PhD showed information on the intensification of extreme weather events that cause significant costs to agriculture. There is an emerging shift from the conventional agricultural practices of the 20th century to an ecological transition and agro-food systems composed of value-added food chains from primary production to final consumption and recycling. The presentation commented on Bulgaria's readiness to follow European trends in building sustainable food chains that would lead to food security and price stability.
Members of departments Management, Insurance and Social Security, Industrial Business and Entrepreneurship, Finance and Credit of the Academy of Economics participated with questions and comments on the topic presented in the webinar. The results of the research will be published in the Scientific Research Almanac, a specialised referred scientific edition of the Scientific Research Institute at Tsenov Academy of Economics - Svishtov.

The round table is organized in implementation of a research project №1-2023 ‘The Effects of the European Sustainability Strategy on the Development of Agriculture in Bulgaria’ funded by the Ordinance of the Ministry of Education and Science to promote research.