site.btaCzech Centres Operating on Smaller Budget in 2026, Institution's External Affairs Head Tells BTA

This year, the Czech Centres are operating on a smaller budget than last year, which has led the institution, in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, to continuously evaluate the functioning of the entire network and adapt it to the current possibilities of Czech foreign policy, Czech Centres External Affairs Section Head Jan Dlouhy said in an email response to BTA on Wednesday. BTA sent an inquiry by email to the institution on April 27 regarding the reasons for the decision, announced by the Czech Centre in Sofia on the same day, that its activities would be terminated at the end of May this year.

Czech Centres is a network of public diplomacy institutes of Czechia worldwide, spreading information about Czech culture, art and social life.

"Our goal is to ensure the long-term sustainability of the Czech Centres as a whole and to preserve their role in presenting the Czech Republic abroad. We greatly appreciate all the interest shown, as well as the fact that the activities of the Czech Centre in Bulgaria have such a strong response and represent an important venue for Czech-Bulgarian cultural dialogue for many people. We are well aware of the importance of the work carried out so far by the Czech Centre in Sofia and the value of the relationships that have been successfully built here.," Dlouhy noted in the letter to BTA.

In a statement to the media on April 27 this year, the Czech Centre in Sofia announced that it was ending its activities. "With great sadness, we inform you that, in accordance with a decision by the Director General of the Czech Centres network, the Czech Centre in Sofia will be closed and will end its cultural and educational activities in Bulgaria," the statement said. On May 5, the oldest Czech institution of this kind abroad, which is also among the longest-operating foreign cultural organisations in Bulgaria, marked its 77th anniversary.

At a meeting of the Academic Council of Sofia University on April 29, an open letter in defence of the Czech Centre in Sofia was unanimously supported, the university’s press centre said. The acting Mayor of Sofia's Sredets Region, Alexander Petkov, issued an open letter to Czechia's Foreign Minister and to the Director General of the Czech Centres headquarters, with a copy to the Bulgarian Foreign Minister, in which he expressed support for preserving the Czech Cultural Centre in Sofia and called for the decision to close it to be reconsidered.

On May 4, hundreds of citizens gathered for a peaceful protest in Kristal Garden against the closure of the Czech Centre in Sofia. "We intend to prove that this institution is extremely valuable to us. We insist that the Czech Centre continue its activities," protest co-organizer Maya Petkova told BTA. Among those attending the protest were the Dean of the Faculty of Slavic Studies at Sofia University Prof. Ameliya Licheva, literary critic Mitko Novkov, Sofia Film Fest Executive Director Mira Staleva, writer Lidia Galabova, journalist and philosopher Toni Nikolov, lecturer in the Department of Slavic Literatures at Sofia University Assoc. Prof. Dobromir Grigorov, Assoc. Prof. Stoyan Dechev from the Poster and Visual Communication Department at the National Academy of Art, Asen Terziev from the Via Fest Foundation, who is also an organizer of the Varna Summer theatre festival, Assoc. Prof. Krasen Troanski from the Ceramics and Porcelain and Glass Design Department at the National Academy of Art, the organizers of the Melba design festival Adriana Andreeva and Boyana Gyaurova, writer Yanitsa Radeva, and Ivana Hitkova from the Read Sofia Foundation.