“To develop Slavonic Studies without Bulgarian Studies is like depriving a child of childhood and view of life.” These are the words with which Vice-president Margarita Popova addressed the guests at the opening ceremony of the “Taras Shevchenko” National University of Kiev. According to the Vice-president, the Center is a sign of the Bulgarian state’s care and concern about our compatriots living abroad and will unite in its activity “the three elements without which there can be no spiritual development – language, history and culture.”

Margarita Popova emphasized that preserving and developing the major degree in Bulgarian Studies at European universities will continue to be a cause she is committed to. “The road to spiritual integration is one of the aims of the people from Eastern Europe and I am happy to see that you are going down this road. I praise you for this far-sighted policy and warmly thank you,” the  Vice-president said at her meeting with professor Petr Alekseevich Beh, deputy rector of the institute of higher education.

Officials from the National University of Kiev have established that the interest in Bulgarian Studies has increased over the past years. The Bulgarian Studies Center is the 18th center for foreign language learning in the institute of higher education and was opened exactly 40 years after the Bulgarian philology program was launched.

In Kiev, where the Vice-president is continuing her working visit to Ukraine, Margarita Popova placed a wreath in front of the monument of the Cyril and Methodius holy brothers. Later on the Vice-president will commemorate the day of Bulgarian enlightenment and culture and the Slavic script together with our compatriots in the Bulgarian embassy in the capital city of Ukraine.