| Name | (Mrs) BOKOVA (family name) Irina Gueorguieva (first names) |
| Born Nationality Civil status |
12 July, 1952 Bulgarian Married, two children |
| PRESENT POSITION | June 2005 to date
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| PARLIAMENTARY EXPERIENCE | June 2001 Member of Parliament
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| ACTIVITY WITHIN THE CIVIL SOCIETY SECTOR | Feb. 1997 – June 2005 Founder and Chairperson of the European Policy Forum (since its inception in Sofia in 1997), a non-profit, non-governmental organisation whose main objectives are as follows: - To promote European identity and to encourage a dialogue on the basis of the diversity of traditions, cultures and historical development with the aim of overcoming the divisions in Europe; - To analyse the development of integration processes in Europe and the world in the political, economic and legal areas, and to identify Bulgaria’s place in them; - To promote European values in all domains of public life through organising discussions and elaborating positions and alternatives.The main activities for attaining these objectives are: - Preparation of research papers by high-level experts on various integration topics; - Organising conferences, seminars and workshops; - Establishing and maintaining contacts with similar Bulgarian, European and other organisations which share the same objectives.In this framework, leading political and social scientists from Bulgaria, Central and Eastern Europe, as well as from Western Europe were brought together to address issues related to European integration, cultural diversity, globalisation etc., with the active collaboration of specialised non-governmental organizations.As Chairperson of the European Policy Forum initiated and/or participated in the following major projects and activities:- January – September 1998, Project on Preparatory Steps for and Potential Consequences of Bulgaria’s EU Membership: Cost and Benefit Analysis, jointly with the Royal Institute for International Affairs (Chatham House), London. The project involved the elaboration of an in-depth study on the topic as well as three round-table discussions – on macroeconomic policies, on agriculture and on social issues.- October – December 1998, South-Eastern Europe in the Changing World, a series of three conferences organised jointly with the NGO Young Europeans for Security (YES);- November 1999 – October 2001, Tempus project European Specialisation in Public Territorial Management implemented jointly with the Faculty of Economics, Sofia University, the National Association of Municipalities in Bulgaria, the University of Perugia (Italy), the University of Grenoble (France) and others on the training of local administration in institution capacity-building in the areas of education, health care, budgeting;- 1999 – 2002, Monitoring of Bulgaria’s accession to the EU, the first project on this issue in Bulgaria: coordinated a team of leading Bulgarian economists, philosophers and jurists and established a permanent monitoring of Bulgaria’s preparation for EU membership on the basis of established benchmarks and criteria. The three-year project comprised annual reports and publications in Bulgarian and English. Seminars and workshops organised in Sofia and Brussels on the results of the reports, attended by representatives of the European Commission, members of the European Parliament, experts etc.- 2004, International conference on United in Diversity: National and Cultural Identity in the Globalising World, held in Sofia, with the participation of high-level representatives of the Bulgarian, Polish and Portuguese intellectual communities.Organised by the European Policy Forum jointly with the National Museum of History in Sofia and selected Bulgarian NGOs, the conference addressed three main topics:1. Dialogue among Cultures 2. A World without Poverty 3. Youth and Education: Challenges of the 21st century |
| 1997-1998 Member of the Working Group on Enlargement with the Robert Schuman Institute of European Studies in Florence, Italy, addressing the geo-political implications of enlargement. |
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| 1997 – 2005 Key-note speaker or invitee to a number of conferences, organized inter alia by the Robert Schuman Institute of European Studies in Florence, Italy, Wilton Park Conferences, UK, Center for European Policy Studies (CEPS), Belgium, College of Europe, Brugge, Belgium, Open Society Foundation, The US Institute of Peace, The Bertelsmann Foundation, Germany, George Marshall Fund, US. |
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| PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE | Feb. 1997 – Sept. 1997 Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Office of the Minister
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| Nov. 1996 – Feb. 1997 Minister of Foreign Affairs |
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| June 1995 – Feb. 1997 State Secretary on European Integration
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| September 1995 Deputy head of the Delegation of Bulgaria to the Fourth World Conference on Women “Action for Equality, Development and Peace” (Beijing, China) |
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| Oct. 1991- March 1992 Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sofia European Security Department First Secretary
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| June 1990 – Oct. 1991 Member of the Constituent National Assembly
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| Aug. 1986 – Jan. 1990 Office of the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Sofia
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| Jan. 1984 – Sept. 1986 Ministry of Foreign Affairs, UN DepartmentThird and Second Secretary
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| Sept. 1982 – Jan. 1984 Permanent Mission of Bulgaria to the UN, New YorkThird Secretary
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| Jan. 1977 – Sept. 1982 Ministry of Foreign Affairs, SofiaAttaché and Third Secretary
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| EDUCATION AND QUALIFICATION | |
1971
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1976
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Jan. – Aug. 1989 USA
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Sept. 1992 – Dec. 1994
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Nov. – Dec. 1999
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| TEACHING FIELDS OF INTEREST | |
2004 – 2005
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| MEMBERSHIP OF PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS AND NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANISATIONS |
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| WEBSITE | www.irinabokova.com |