For the UK, EU membership was a pragmatic choice, not a romantic story. However, the country found itself in the middle of a project underpinned by the “ever closer union” principle, which did not fit London's idea of European integration, says Ingrid Shikova, professor in EU policies, in an interview to Europost.

Bulgaria is ready to enter the ERM-2 and respectively the Eurozone as the country have stacked a number of years of stable figures when it comes to membership criteria for the monetary union. Furthermore, Bulgaria is among the best in the EU based on indicators like public debt. The Eurozone paid a heavy price for its political benevolence and naivety, so now the political decision goes through nothing but solid macroeconomic parameters of the applying country, Petar Andronov, Chairman of the Association of Banks in Bulgaria (ABB), says.

Our motto 'A strong Europe in a world of challenges' was inspired by two ideas: that the Presidency is coming in when the EU is facing a number of important challenges - political, economic, societal, not only global but also within the EU, and that the answer to these challenges has to be strong, common, European, says H.E. Irena Andrassy, Ambassador, Permanent Representative of Croatia to the EU, in an interview to Europost.

Currently, the EU is at 20% emission reduction - achieved within 30 years. However, this includes the collapse of industry in Eastern Europe. Most coal-fired power generation in Western Europe is closed, the low-hanging fruits of energy efficiency are already taken. But there is no way to decrease CO2 emissions by additional 30% within 10 years only, says Boyan Rashev, environmental management expert and a Managing Partner at Denkstatt.

The efforts of the international organisations have to be focused on the prevention of migration and providing decent life in the countries of Africa and the Middle East. In my opinion, this is the best and surest solution to the problem, albeit in a long-term perspective, says H.E. Ursula Hoefter Zuccoli, Ambassador of the Sovereign Order of Malta to Bulgaria, in an interview to Europost.

The debate about performance orientation of cohesion policy is not new and involved through the years many different stakeholders that had sometimes contradictory views. With our briefing paper we aim at contributing to this debate by providing relevant and focused information to all those involved in tackling the difficult political and practical challenges on how to improve performance orientation for the future, says Iliana Ivanova, Member of the ECA in an interview to Europost.

The raised ambition is the result of the EU elections held in May, of the very good election results of the Greens and the protests of the civil society. On the EU level it was proven that it is possible to ensure economic growth in parallel with decreasing the greenhouse emissions, says Georgi Stefanov, Chief Climate and Energy Expert at WWF Bulgaria, in an interview to Europost.

First of all, the new SME Strategy needs to be for all SMEs, not only for those which are innovative, fast-growing, internationally active, but also for those that are providing our day-to-day needs, such as food, clothes, houses, cars, anything we sit on. We also need to show the added value of the Union to them. Secondly, we need to make sure that all these words that we have at EU level are turned into action, says Veronique Willems, Secretary General of SMEunited, in an interview to Europost.

How much longer is the EU going to present an encouraging view of the situation and at the same time remain passive regarding the region? Continuing this policy of positive messages without corresponding action will only contribute to a further deterioration of sentiments towards the EU and will discourage people who are truly pro-European, says Ilhan Kyuchyuk, ALDE Party Vice-President, MEP from Renew Europe Group, in an interview to Europost.

It is important to underline that the EU has the potential to become a major player in the provision of water-related technologies and services. In this respect, digitalisation can help to significantly increase the efficiency both of water resource management and of production and service concepts, says Simo Tiainen, rapporteur on the EESC's blue bioeconomy opinion.