Bulgaria officially announced that it is refusing to host a UNESCO session that was planned for July 2025. This was announced by the press center of the Ministry of Culture (MK) a few days ago. The news expectedly caused mixed comments in parliament, but everyone “guarded” or “criticized” depending on which side they were on.
Former acting culture minister Naiden Todorov claims that the organization went according to plan. The new minister Marian Bachev believes that the organization was not good, and there was no guaranteed funding. In other words – everyone is doing their job, but the Bulgarian host of the UNESCO session will be in Paris.
Let's just add that the session will be held in the French capital (UNESCO's headquarters are also there) from July 6 to 16. But! Bulgaria remains formally the host, which means that it will pay France about 1 million euros for organizing the event.
All this is happening after the new government of GERB, BSP and ITN was formed about two months ago, supported by DPS-Dogan. And Marian Bachev (ITN) became the Minister of Culture.
A week ago, Bachev announced that the organization of the event was not going well, that there was a backlog. Thus, he tactfully hinted that the former acting Minister of Culture Naiden Todorov was to blame for everything. He, in turn, replied that the official cabinet had done everything necessary to hold the session and the work was going according to plan.
And as everything is going according to plan, our country's refusal became official last Wednesday.
According to the PP-DB, there is no reason for Bulgaria to refuse, because there was good communication with UNESCO and they confirmed that everything is moving according to plan. “Vazrazhdane“ said on the subject that this was a “diplomatic and cultural disgrace“.
ITN defended their minister, and Toshko Yordanov announced that there had been “irreversible delay“ in the organization of the event and it was not financially secured.
The Nessebar case
The Old Town of Nessebar has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List for 42 years, but it could be DELETED. Why? The reason is its overdevelopment.
“The Ancient Town of Nessebar” was on the verge of losing its status in 2022 precisely because of mass construction. In January 2023, the organization sent a monitoring mission to Bulgaria, together with the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS). The missionaries found a significant loss of historical authenticity and cultural significance. A plan for the preservation and management of the ancient town has not been found. The mission concluded with a report with recommendations, including a moratorium on new construction until the plan is prepared and approved, as well as limiting overall interventions on the urban structure. The cultural heritage also includes the water area around Nessebar, since a significant part of the ancient and medieval city is under water.
Last week, the current Minister of Culture Marian Bachev criticized the preparations of his former predecessor Nayden Todorov. According to Todorov's team, however, all actions and a full schedule of the upcoming steps for Bulgaria's hosting have been taken, none of which have been started, said the former head of the press service of the Ministry of Culture Kremena Nikolova. According to her, there is no practice at UNESCO sessions to remove sites of the host country from the list. But there is a huge risk that this will happen if the event is held in another country. Thus, we will not be able to preserve Ancient Nessebar, and at the same time we will pay the costs of hosting in Paris, Todorov's team also said.
How Bulgaria was chosen to host
In July 2024 Bulgaria was chosen to host the 47th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee. The country's desire to host the session was unanimously supported by the parliamentary parties.
At that time, a caretaker government headed by Dimitar Glavchev was in power, and the Minister of Culture was Nayden Todorov. The session was planned to be held a year later - in July 2025.
Todorov also said that he wanted the organization of the session to be taken over by the Council of Ministers, instead of just the Ministry of Culture, but this never happened.
Why Bulgaria withdrew
Last Thursday, Marian Bachev told the parliamentary committee on culture that there was a significant backlog in the organization of the UNESCO session in Bulgaria. According to him, about two weeks after the new cabinet took office, it became clear that our country would not be able to hold the session in Sofia.
“At the end of January, we began to analyze the individual departments and it began to be understood that we had missed many deadlines. There are procedures that need to be followed. This organization is not organizing a concert by a pop star, which requires several months and people from Bulgaria to see the specific performer. This is related to an organization that is not only the Ministry of Culture, this is teamwork. Many signals have been received, including from June from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, that things are not in good condition with regard to this organization, which requires technical time. For example, this decision should have been ratified in the National Assembly on November 6 at the latest, eight months before the start," explained the Minister of Culture Marian Bachev.
He pointed out that Dimitar Glavchev's office has not included funds in the 2025 budget for holding the UNESCO session in the capital.
"Separately, there are public procurements that need to be made - they take 4 months, if there are appeals, another 4 months; separately, the requirements for the National Palace of Culture; separately, those that need to be accommodated have requirements for 3,4,5 stars – hotels should not have a carbon footprint on air conditioning systems", commented Marian Bachev.
"If everything is done as well as the organizers from the previous cabinet say, who am I not to open the session on July 6, dressed in a suit, have a speech and say that such an event happens once every few decades. Obviously, I would like it very much, but it is not possible when the circumstances are like this", said the Minister of Culture.
„We will save on logistics, on organization, on renting halls from the people who work from the heart of UNESCO anyway. Not to mention issuing visas for foreign guests, some of whom we do not have representation here. The entire organization also requires human resources and capacity, which must be created and well organized“, the Minister of Culture further explained.
We will save on logistics, on organization, on renting halls from people…We will save!?
This is what we hear from Marian Bachev, but otherwise we will pay 1 million euros to Paris, we will fill the hotels in Paris with about 5,000 guests, we will engage French companies for transport, logistics, catering, etc. But we would have saved… No comment. And, in fact, the question is whether we will save Nessebar from remaining part of the UNESCO World Heritage, or we will save on that too.