Address of Petar Stoyanov, President of the Republic of Bulgaria, to the Participants in the Citizen Participation in Local Self-Government International Conference, March 19 - 20, 1998, Sofia

Ladies and gentlemen! Thank you for your kind invitation. I am sincerely sorry that urgent matters made it impossible for me to attend the opening of the conference. I highly appreciate your efforts aimed at laying the foundations of true civil society in Bulgaria. This would be impossible without wide participation of citizens in local self-government, which is the overall topic of your forum.

Civil society and democracy are closely related and interdependent. Civil society is a guarantee for democracy, as it creates opportunities for expression of people s will and protects their interests in government at local and national level.

Even our modest experience of the last several years has proven beyond doubt that every government which does not take into consideration this simple truth loses public support and confidence. In this respect, the opportunity to exchange ideas and experience among experts, mayors, representatives of local authorities and citizen groups from countries which have reached different stages in their socio-economic development, will undoubtfully contribute to better interaction between the individual elements of civil society in our country.

I wish all of you prosperity and successful work of the conference.

Petar Stoyanov

President of the Republic of Bulgaria