MGERB took part in an international conference of IRI in the Republic of Croatia

19/06/11

The International Republican Institute (IRI) held the consecutive political conference in East Europe. Croatia was the host of the seminars in which participated 23 youths from 11 European countries. MGERB was represented to the international conference by the Regional Coordinator of Sliven – Vesela Kacharova. The topic of the conference was “Successful leadership of an election campaign”.

The trainings were held by lecturers from Austria, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. The event was held in the frame of three days in the city of Zadar. The main topics were: “How to use the public opinion for a political campaign”, “The organisation of a successful election campaign: strategies, planning” and “Verbal and non-verbal communication in front of the media”.

As part of the training were held role-playing games. The youths were divided into groups representing different political parties and it was necessary for them to defend the interests of their parties and candidates in different media formats. The target of the trainings was to show leadership skills during an election campaign. The participants held press conferences and television debates, which were filmed and analyzed by the lecturers.

Jan Surotchak the Director of IRI for Europe took part in the seminars. He presented a deep analysis of the election campaign and the results from the elections in the USA during November 2010.

MGERB initiated a wide informational campaign under the motto “I support Bulgaria’s membership in Schengen”

12/06/11

Exactly at 10 o’clock in the morning on 12 June the youth representatives of GERB from the entire country put the beginning of a national informational campaign “I support Bulgaria’s membership in Schengen”. The initiative’s formal beginning was set on 27 May in the Bulgarian Parliament where the Chairperson of MGERB Monika Panayotova, together with the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Domestic Affairs- Cvetan Cvetanov and the European Deputies of GERB/EPP in the European Parliament Andrey Kovachev and Vladimir Uruchev presented the “Guide for Travelling in Schengen”.

The informational campaign of the youth representatives took place in all the district cities and most of the municipalities of the country where 224 000 brochures were distributed only during the first day of the campaign. Many deputies from GERB and the European Deputies themselves took part in the campaign in different places around the country.




“I support Bulgaria’s membership in Schengen” aims for increasing the familiarity of citizens with their rights and obligations during their travelling and stay in the countries from the Schengen Society. The Guide prepared by MGERB consists of very useful information on necessary documents when crossing the borders and customs regulations as well as the maximum of speed allowed when driving in each Schengen country, the maximum amount of money and the means of payment one can have in theirselves etc. In the guide citizens can also find the addresses and telephones of all the Bulgarian Diplomatic offices in the Schengen countries which they can contact in case of emergency.

The youth representatives of GERB who were going around the country all day in order to meet as many people as possible consider Bulgaria’s entering the Schengen Society as a major priority not only for young people but also for business in our country. Monika Panayotova who is also a Deputy in the Bulgarian Parliament related directly to the subject “Schengen” put an accent on the fact that Bulgarian citizens need more positive campaigns like this one. Monika shared her hope that after this initiative every citizen who was reached by the youth representatives is now at least a little bit better informed on Schengen.

The informational campaign will continue to take place in the entire country during the next few weeks.

The “Guide for Travelling in Schengen” can be downloaded in electronical version.