MATCHMAKING EVENT FOR CREATING PARTNERSHIPS WITH THE DONOR STATES

The National Focal Point (NFP) together with the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Sofia hosted today a matchmaking event for strenghtening the bilateral relations between Bulgaria and the Donor States. The event aims to present the Bilateral Fund at National Level, managed by the NFP.

34 participants from Bulgaria were joined by 9 entities from the donor states - 8 from Norway and 1 from Iceland. The participants included state institutions, local authorities and NGOs working in various fields like culture, mediation, minority issues (including Roma). The representatives from the donor states had the opportunity to present their organisations and activities.

Welcoming addresses were made by Ms. Mariana Kordova - Head of the NFP, H.E. Ms. Guro Katharina Vikør - Ambassador of Norway to Bulgaria and Mr. Thorsteinn Bjornsson - Country Officer for Bulgaria at the Financial Mechanism Office. They expressed their confidence in the success of the event and encourage the participants to be active in communicating with the potential partners. The event continued with presentations of the Fund for bilateral relations at national level by Ms. Daniela Tsoneva and Ms. Irena Boneva from the NFP. The slides followed important topics like priority areas, financial limits and requirements. The floor was then open for questions that ranged from the technical field of application submition to organising partnerships and developing project concepts.

The afternoon session gave the opportunity for establishing contacts via direct talks face to face. We hope that the seminar will serve as a good starting point for the development of many projects and initiatives under the Billateral Fund.