During the first week of June 2014, ACB’s youth organization, the Bulgarian Euro-Atlantic Youth Club (BEAYC), organized a one-week NATO Summer School, which addressed some of the most important security aspects for NATO in the period after 2014.

During the course of the seminar, young people from Bulgaria and other European countries who were working for state institutions in charge of foreign relations and contacts with NATO, were acquainted with the important shift of priorities that affected all Alliance Members. The seminar aimed to focus public opinion in Bulgaria on the benefits that NATO membership had brought to its government and citizens. In this way, the advantages of membership were also demonstrated to participants coming from countries that were yet to join the Alliance.

The seminar highlighted not only the active contribution that Bulgaria had made to NATO and Euro-Atlantic security in the past decade, but also how participation in the Alliance-led missions and operations had benefited the Bulgarian Armed Forces and what impact it had on the Bulgarian priorities in NATO. 

During the seminar, speakers and participants also discussed the possible niches for specialization of smaller countries in the framework of the Smart Defense Initiative of the Alliance, as well as the contribution of newer members and smaller countries in the joint Alliance missions.

The seminar took place from 1 – 7 June 2014 at the Nikola Vaptsarov Naval Academy in Varna.