site.btaApril 28, 1995: Protocol Establishing Association of Balkan News Agencies Signed in Sofia

The Association of the Balkan News Agencies (ABNA) was established in Sofia 30 years ago, on April 28, 1995. The protocol establishing the organization was signed by six founding members: the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) and the Balkan Information Pool of Bulgaria, the Anadolu Agency (AA) of Turkiye, the Athens News Agency (ANA) and the Macedonian Press Agency (MPA) of Greece (which merged in 2008 and later formed the Greece - Athens News Agency - Macedonian Press Agency (ANA-MPA)), TANJUG of Yugoslavia, and ROMPRES of Romania (AGERPRES since 2008).

Preliminary meetings for the establishment of ABNA were held in Thessaloniki, Greece, on November 28 and 29, 1994 and in Sofia on April 28, 1995. The 1st Founding General Assembly took place in Thessaloniki from June 23 to 25, 1995.

Since ABNA's establishment, its membership has increased to twelve news agencies, with the addition of the Albanian Telegraphic Agency (ATA), Bosnia and Herzegovina's Federal News Agency (FENA), the Croatian News Agency (HINA), the Cyprus News Agency (CNA), Kosovo's KosovaPress News Agency (KOSOVAPRESS), the Montenegro Independent News Agency (MINA), and North Macedonia's Media Information Agency (MIA). The last to join, at the 31st General Assembly in Thessaloniki on March 22, 2023, was the Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata (ANSA) of Italy.

At the 29th General Assembly in Pristina, Kosovo, September 17-19, 2021, BTA Director General Kiril Valchev proposed the setting up of a Balkan News Room as a common platform for news from the Balkan countries and that the ABNA member agencies exchange headline news items from their countries every day and distribute them on a reciprocal basis.

At the 30th General Assembly in Burgas, Bulgaria, September 19-22, 2022, BTA Director General Kiril Valchev was elected ABNA Secretary General for a three-year term. The forum also adopted a Statute of ABNA, which follows the principles enshrined in the Statute of the European Association of News Agencies (EANA). At the same assembly, Bulgaria was selected to host the Association, whose seat is at BTA's administrative address.

On October 6, 2022, the Association of the Balkan News Agencies - Southeast Europe (ABNA-SE) was registered in Bulgaria as a non-profit association for the pursuit of private-benefit activities.

BTA's Balkan News Desk covered the establishment of the Association:

"Balkan News Agencies Establish Association 

Sofia, April 28, 1995 (BTA) - A protocol establishing an Association of the Balkan News Agencies was signed here this evening.

Mindful of the need of concerted efforts and guided by a desire to cooperate in news gathering and reporting, representatives and heads of agencies of the Balkan countries met in Sofia today and established the Association, the protocol reads.

Before the adoption of the establishing protocol, a commission of representatives of BTA, TANJUG and MPA had made certain changes in the draft instruments, which were discussed at the meeting by all participants. The participants agreed to rename the organization from 'Association of Balkan Information Agencies' to 'Association of the Balkan News Agencies (ABNA)'. Various proposals have been made for ABNA's future statute and seat, but these matters were left for consideration at the next meeting. The election of a leadership was not decided this evening, either. The president and vice president will probably rotate for six-month terms in the alphabetical order of the participating countries' capitals.

The establishing protocol was signed by the heads of the Bulgarian News Agency and the Balkan Information Pool for Bulgaria, the Anadolu Agency for Turkiye, the Athens News Agency for Greece, TANJUG for the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, ROMPRES for Romania, and the Macedonian Press Agency of Thessaloniki for Greece.

The participants in the meeting addressed a request to the Balkan countries' governments to facilitate journalists' contacts and travel between neighbouring countries by easing or even lifting visa requirements for them."