Representatives of Amalipe met with an EC team to assess the implementation of the European Semester
The European Commission team assessing Bulgaria’s implementation of the European Semester held technical meetings with NGO representatives to explore their views on developments on key issues related to education, justice, Roma integration, etc. Amalipe Center was represented by Deyan Kolev and Teodora Krumova, who participated in two of the meetings – with organizations working in the field of education and with Roma and pro-Roma organizations. The discussions took place on 26.01 at the EC Representation in Sofia.
The technical mission to assess the implementation of the European Semester was organized by the Directorates-General for Employment (represented by Kaloyan Kolev), Justice (represented by Atanas Stoyanov and Marcela Adamova), Education and Culture and other directorates. In addition to discussions with the main national institutions (MES, Ministry of Justice, Council of Ministers, etc.), they also held discussions with the social partners (employers and trade unions), as well as with key organizations in the relevant fields. The mission aimed to examine the implementation of the European Commission’s recommendations to Bulgaria on the main topics of the European Semester, to analyze the views of the main stakeholders on the current developments on the topics concerned and to prepare new policy recommendations.
The meeting with representatives of non-governmental organizations working in the field of education and/or integration of Roma was attended by representatives of the Bulgarian Teachers’ Union, the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, the National Network for Children, the Trust for Social Alternative and the Amalipe Center. The discussion covered a wide range of topics: Education reform; vocational education and training; adult education: upskilling and reskilling of the workforce; digital and green skills in education; teacher training; early childhood education and care; Roma inclusion; energy poverty; housing policy. As expected, the discussion led to a wide range of divergent and complementary positions. The general opinion was that the educational reform is extremely necessary, but has not yet managed to achieve serious results, especially in terms of competence-based knowledge, digital literacy, the formation of skills (as opposed to mechanical memorization of knowledge), etc. Deyan Kolev emphasized the need to improve the quality of teaching: in recent years, teacher salaries have been increased threefold (an important positive fact that increases the interest of young people in training in pedagogical specialties), but this is not associated with a threefold improvement in the teaching method. He emphasized that as part of the increase in funds for education in 2018, the provision of additional funds for working with vulnerable groups began (in accordance with Art. 52a of the Funding Regulation), which aim to attract motivated teachers to schools with a concentration of vulnerable groups, including to support rural schools. An important success from 2023 is that these funds are used to secure the salaries of educational mediators. Unfortunately, funding for working with vulnerable groups is increasing at too low a rate. It is also necessary to increase the funding of schools with a small number of students, especially through the single spending standard per class, since most of the rural schools use over 90% of the delegated budget for the salaries of their teachers. This does not allow them to develop a quality educational process, Kolev argued. He also pointed out that despite the intense discussions over the past year on topics such as the introduction of a mandatory subject “Virtues and Religions”, changes in the education law and others, the Ministry of Education and Science accepts some of the positions of civil society organizations (for example, on the introduction of a non-denominational program “Virtues and Ethics”) and the interaction between the educational institution and NGOs should be deepened.
Ognyan Isaev (Trust for Social Alternative) stressed the importance of introducing additional language support for children who do not speak Bulgarian well – there are many unanswered questions about how this will happen, especially given the fact that the amendments to the Preschool and School Education Act will not be adopted by the current National Assembly. He drew attention to the fact that the initial proposal of the Ministry of Education and Science for desegregation texts was changed at the insistence of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which insists that there is no segregation in Bulgarian schools. It is clear to everyone that segregation exists and is deepening, it is also necessary for national institutions to recognize it and take action for desegregation.
Teodora Krumova drew attention to the stigma faced by schools educating Roma students. Many institutions, as well as researchers without in-depth knowledge of the educational process in them, often define these schools as a “nest” of low grades, low quality of education and formal learning process. It is undeniable that some of the educational institutions with a concentration of vulnerable groups have these problems, but many of them make great efforts and manage to overcome the problems. This is often not visible on the surface, but a thorough analysis clearly reveals the positive trends. She gave as an example one of the vocational high schools from the Amalipe Center network: 6 years ago, not a single student in it took the matriculation exam, and in May 2025, most of the graduates took the matriculation exam in Bulgarian language and literature and achieved an average score of Good 4.09. This is the picture in a number of other vocational high schools.
Maria Metodieva (Trust for Social Alternative) highlighted the important positive change with the introduction of a service address, where families without registration and personal documents can be registered. This allows hundreds of thousands of citizens to obtain identity cards, including tens of thousands of graduates who will take their matriculation exams.
The participants in the discussion also agreed on the need to introduce criteria for the quality of education based on the value-added system. That is, instead of publishing lists comparing the success of different schools in the National External Assessment and the State Examination (teaching completely different students, from families with different educational status and financial capabilities), the progress of each school over the years should be assessed and the extent to which it provides knowledge and skills to its graduates (comparison between how they behave, how they perform at different stages and how they graduate). There was a general opinion that it is necessary to deepen the partnership between educational institutions and civil society organizations. In recent years, NGOs have been under strong pressure (including attempts to adopt a Law on the Registration of Foreign Agents, proposals to ban the work of NGOs in schools, etc.), which greatly limits the opportunities for innovation in schools.
The meeting with representatives of non-governmental organizations working in the field of Roma integration was attended by Maria Metodieva and Ognyan Isaev from the Trust for Social Alternative, Nadezhda Tsekulova from the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, and Teodora Krumova and Deyan Kolev from the Amalipe Center. The topic of the meeting was the implementation of the EU Strategic Framework for Roma Equality, Inclusion and Participation (2020-2030). The participants were unanimous that there has been a serious decline in political attention to Roma and integration activities. The National Contact Point is functioning at its minimum, and is currently represented by a department in the Council of Ministers that combines the fight against domestic violence, interaction with civil society, and ethnic and integration issues. It employs a small number of experts, none of whom are Roma. Back in 2013, most Roma organizations left the National Council for Cooperation on Ethnic and Integration Issues, demanding its reform and expansion of powers. Talks about this have been started several times, but to date have not led to any practical results.
Maria Metodieva emphasized the need for investments in Roma neighborhoods, including in their schools. Despite efforts for desegregation, hundreds of thousands of Roma live and will continue to live in segregated neighborhoods, and their children will continue to be educated there. It is necessary for the Bulgarian state and European funds to invest and improve the quality of life there.
Deyan Kolev emphasized that currently there are serious barriers (created at the national level) to the use of funds from operational programs by NGOs: the lack of advances if the project coordinator is an NGO, the application of de minimis, etc. At this point, primarily the Swiss-Bulgarian Development Program and the European Economic Area Financial Mechanism invest in the institutional capacity of civil society organizations, unlike the ESF+.
The participants united around several proposals: reform of the National Roma Integration and Integration Strategy, in-depth work on overcoming anti-Roma discrimination and segregation in education and housing segregation, creation of mechanisms for engaging NGOs in Roma integration activities, inclusion of the Roma topic in the new operational programs, development of a new European Roma Strategic Framework after 2030, etc.
See also:
What Was 2025 Like for Civil Society Organizations in Bulgaria?