On 19 July 1879, Prince Alexander of Battenberg appointed the very first diplomatic agents in newly liberated Bulgaria. Those included Dragan Tsankov, Evlogi Georgiev and Dimitar Kirovich. 120 years later the Foreign Minister at that time Nadezhda Mihaylova declared July 19 the Day of the Bulgarian Diplomatic Service.

With a three-day conference in Sofia accentuating the 2018 Bulgaria Presidency of the Council of the European Union, Bulgarian ambassadors to countries across the globe mark the Day of the Diplomatic Service. In turn the Diplomatic Institute in Sofia (DI) bestows its annual award for special contribution into the development of the institution. "The distinction is called „Docendo discimus“. This is in fact our motto which means “by teaching we learn”’, specifies the Director of the Diplomatic Institute Tanya Mihaylova. "The badge of honor this year goes to Slavcho Neykov, Chairman of the Managing Board of the Energy Management Institute. Over the past 5 to 6 years he has contributed a lot into the development of a sector in which the DI has been particularly active – energy diplomacy’",Tanya Mihaylova explains. "Last but not least, through his expertise the DI has been very useful sharing what we achieved and what mistakes we made during Bulgaria’s EU accession negotiations. This experience has been shared with countries in the region including Macedonia, Montenegro, Kosovo and Ukraine."

At the end of June Tanya Mihaylova bestowed this year’s DI award for a foreign national or organization with a major contribution into the development of the Institute to Prof. Dr. Eckart D. Stratenschulte, Director of the European Academy Berlin. At a special ceremony his role in DI training activities as speaker and moderator was duly acknowledged.

The Diplomatic Institute in Sofia was founded in 2003 with the mission to deliver better professional training to future Bulgarian diplomats as well as to officials from other branches of the public administration engaged in international relations. The present-day communication environment and the way different countries are presented spell new challenges to the diplomatic profession. "It is assumed that this is a conservative profession which often operates behind closed doors. Of course, this is more or less the case today too however the steps any country makes in its international relations are much more visible. The challenge in this context is how to keep intact this underwater part of the iceberg that usually has to do with the very essence of the diplomatic profession", Tanya Mihaylova remarks. In her view Bulgarian diplomacy today is consolidated and safely equipped with good expertise and capacities further strengthened by up-to-date programs, seminars and thematic discussions organized by the institution that she leads. "We launched thematic trainings which were unthinkable in the past, for instance economic diplomacy, public diplomacy and energy diplomacy – all of them related to sectors outside traditional Bulgarian diplomacy or unused as tools of diplomacy. This is precisely the way to be flexible. At the Diplomatic Institute we keep in touch with similar diplomatic schools and academies in Europe and across the world. We follow the latest trends in diplomatic training to be able to respond to the challenges of the world today. This way we are ready any moment to offer all that the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry and the rest of the public administration needs for informed decision-making and to feel well prepared and capable where international relations are concerned."

English Daniela Konstantinova