site.btaBTA Is Key Source of Information on European Matters in Bulgaria, Director General Says

Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) is a key source of information on European matters in Bulgaria, as well as of information from Bulgaria to Europe, which is the focus of the Committee on European Affairs and Oversight of the European Funds, said BTA Director General Kiril Valchev on Thursday. He was speaking before the Committee to brief the MPs on the news agency’s mission and its activities on various European topics.

"The second topic you are dealing with - the EU funds - is something BTA has good experience with," noted Valchev.

The BTA Director General suggested to think about a lasting strategy - in terms of finances and personnel - for the information presence of Bulgaria in Europe and of the European Union in Bulgaria: “A strategy for transmitting information about the Bulgarian experience in the EU to the countries that are about to join it, a strategy for the Bulgarian communities with a great emphasis on the Bulgarian media and, finally, finding a lasting and systematic solution to the issue of co-financing of EU projects”, explained Valchev. "My plea is to draw attention to the fact that institutions like ours probably have a much bigger problem with co-financing, which cannot be provided from their own budgets," he added.

Media hub

BTA has had a correspondent in Brussels since Bulgaria joined the EU, Valchev said. He pointed out, however, that in the 1980s BTA reached 32 cities abroad through correspondents. "I found one permanent correspondent with a contract - only in Brussels. The Agency was left without correspondents in the 1990s. There were 18 correspondents in Europe, 11 in countries of the current EU," Valchev said.

Other media mostly use stringers, i.e. people with a non-permanent commitment who are paid for specific coverage of an event, he went on to say. "Some larger media outlets also have permanent correspondents, but it seems to me that the information we get from the EU institutions is not comprehensive enough. We cover the European Parliament, its meetings, but we do not have the capacity to cover in depth, for example, the meetings of the European Parliament committees," Valchev said.

"Our plan is to strengthen this correspondence point by turning it into a real correspondence desk, where there will be at least one more correspondent. Bulgaria should think about building a media hub, which would include the correspondents of the other media, to try to work together so that the issues important for our country are covered as deeply as possible in the European institutions. We should think about building a correspondents' bureau with an office, we call them national press clubs, in Brussels. According to various data, there are about 60 thousand Bulgarians in Belgium," explained Valchev.

He explained that he has started to reinstate correspondents in Bulgaria's neighbouring European countries. The first one was in Skopje. "Everywhere our strategy is to have a second person who is local. After Skopje, we opened a press club in Bucharest, in Ankara, in Belgrade, now we are preparing one in Athens," Valchev said. A correspondent's post costs about BGN 100,000 - a correspondent, an office, accommodation and a second person to help. This was only reflected in the first BTA budget," Valchev noted, adding that the Agency is trying to continue with its own funds.

Bulgarian communities

BTA is present in Europe among the old Bulgarian communities, Valchev told the Committee. "We have correspondents with national press clubs in Bosilegrad, in Taraclia, and at the beginning of the war in Ukraine we opened one in Odesa, where between 50,000 and 60,000 Bulgarians live in the city alone, and about 150,000 in Odesa Region. BTA is the only source of information from this region and the Bulgarian community there," said Valchev.

"However, we need a strategy to expand into European countries with the new Bulgarian migration, starting with those with the largest communities - Spain, Germany, UK, using local people. At the moment, we are coping with the coverage of these communities, thanks to contacts with the few Bulgarian media that are left in these countries," Valchev explained. "They are few, they are decreasing more and more, because Bulgaria does not have a strategy similar to the one with schools, where there is quite a lot of funding. Two years ago, a programme was announced for BGN 200,000, which was divided between 20 media outlets all over the world," he specified.

Kiril Valchev pointed out that BTA also uses special correspondents. "During the European Parliament elections last year, we did an experiment. Thanks to a little extra funding given to Bulgarian National Radio, Bulgarian National Television and BTA for extraordinary expenses during elections, we sent a correspondent to all European capitals and thus got a complete picture, which in turn allowed our partners, such as the largest agency in the world - the Indian one, to cover the European elections through Bulgaria," said Valchev. He noted that the Indian agency sent a correspondent to Bulgaria.

The BTA Director General added that the Agency also sends a special correspondent to the European Central Bank meetings.

BTA partners

In September 2022, the European Newsroom (ENR) was officially launched - a collaborative platform for 16 European news agencies, including BTA. ENR aims to create a hub for quality journalism with equal participation of agencies, Valchev said. From July 2022 to the end of May 2025, BTA has published 148 digests (three to five news stories from Bulgaria with a European context), 187 news stories in the Europe in Brief section in Bulgarian, and has participated with other agencies in the creation of 128 English-language reviews on important EU topics, Valchev explained.

BTA is a member of several international organisations that are quite useful, such as the European Alliance of News Agencies based in Switzerland, he noted. "We have been admitted to the MINDS organisation, which is like the G20 of global agencies. Australia, Japan, Canada, the United States, India and the big European agencies are involved," Valchev said, adding that Bulgaria is the headquarters of the Association of Balkan News Agencies. Valchev pointed out that BTA has contracts with 29 agencies in Europe, and they are on a grant basis and a total of 50 contracts, including the other continents. "One of the goals we are pursuing is not only to get free information from the respective country, but also that we send information about Bulgaria every day. There is daily information published from Bulgaria through BTA in these agencies, which is used by other media accordingly," noted Valchev.

BTA has partnership agreements with 42 of the 51 universities in Bulgaria, and on Friday the Agency will sign with the 43rd, noted Valchev.

BG World

BTA has created a special column BG WORLD, Valchev said, adding that in 2021 there were 243 news from Bulgarian communities, reaching 8,000 in 2024, most of them from Europe.

LIK

BTA has resumed publishing the LIK magazine, he went on to say. First it was published only in Bulgarian, but on certain topics BTA now publishes the magazine in English, Spanish, French, Japanese. "Now we are preparing the issue on the Bulgarian Presidency of UNESCO in Paris, in Bulgaria, French, and English," Valchev specified.

"We have made a special LIK typeface. We provide it absolutely free of charge, and I hope that the National Assembly will also be interested, as several institutions have already shown interest," added the BTA Director General.

14 centuries Bulgaria

Bulgarian National Television, Bulgarian National Radio and BTA have announced a joint initiative called “14 centuries Bulgaria in Europe”, Valchev said. He explained that significant anniversaries for Bulgaria will be celebrated, such as the 140th anniversary of the Unification of Bulgaria, which is marked in September.

The experience with EU funds

"I know how much the National Recovery and Resilience Plan is being discussed. We have successful experience. We have a project which, in the context of the large investments that are expected to be made, amounts to less than BGN 4 million - for the digitization of our archives. We are talking about the news from 1898 to present day. We have the largest archive of photographs in Bulgaria. Our own alone are about 2 million, and the most valuable are about 600-700,000, which we are now digitizing," Valchev told the MPs.

"Thanks to this plan, we were able to arrange our archives in modern premises. As of the end of May, 63% of the bulletins have been digitized: 3.3 million out of 5.3 million pages have been digitized; 55% of the photos have also been digitized," Valchev explained.

BTA awaits approval from the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works for a project under Operational Programme Regions in Growth. The Agency is included in the integrated plan of Sofia. BTA has managed to clean its facade; the air conditioners have been removed and the facade has been lit up. "It gives a different look when you enter our city," Valchev commented.

In his words, now the goal is to make a modern garden where the continents will be represented through vegetation, with information “sponges” on which the news from different places in the world will go. BTA is trying to fix the building in terms of energy efficiency under this project. The whole project is worth some BGN 7 million; the problem is that BTA has to provide co-financing, added Valchev.