From 26 – 27 April 2012, at the Kempinski Hotel Zografski, in Sofia, PanEuropean Movement – Bulgaria, together with The Atlantic Club of Bulgaria, the Czech Embassy and the International Visegrad Fund, and in cooperation with the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy, organized an international conference, entitled “Strategic Energy Challenges – V4 and Bulgaria and Romania: Common Interests, Common Actions”.

The conference began with the welcome speeches of Ms. Gergana Passy, President of Paneuropean Movement – Bulgaria, and H.E. Pavel Vacek, Ambassador of the Czech Republic in Bulgaria and Chairman of the Visegrad Forum, followed by the opening addresses of the Deputy Minister of Economy, Energy and Tourism Mr. Valentin Nikolov, and Mr. Vlastimir Tesar, Director in Chief at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic.

The event lasted two days and consisted of three panels, which were moderated by Petar Poptchev, Ambassador at Large for Energy Security, MFA, and Member of the Managing Board of Paneuropean Movement – Bulgaria; Stanislav Georgiev, National Representative for Areva; Mr. Nikola Gazdov, Chairman of the Bulgarian Photovoltaic Association and Veronika Zapletalova from the International Institute of Political Sciences at Masaryk University in the Czech Republic. The topics that were discussed during the panels were healthy electricity market through the prism of investors; challenges and perspectives in front of nuclear energy; renewable energy sources; the supply of gas and oil as a problem of security and diversification of sources and routes.