The first two years of the mandate of the new EC have been marked by two profound changes in
the politics, economy and social life in the EU. First, the Green Deal finalizes a long-begun
process of restructuring towards an environmentally friendly consumption economy and social
life in general. After a long experimental stage, quotas and fees for harmful emissions are today a
powerful tool for managing the economy. After the breakthrough in photovoltaic and wind
power plants that began more than twenty years ago, this process was complemented in 2019
with the triumphant invasion of electric cars based on lithium-ion batteries, with their share
approaching that of cars powered by lithium-ion batteries in some European countries.
conventional way. If the Green Deal goes ahead as intended, it would be a major technological
shift with direct geopolitical and military implications. In this process, the EU competes with
other geopolitical centers such as the US and China. Second, the greening of Europe as if has
been overshadowed by Covid-19, although one of the first signs of the epidemic in China was a
sharp reduction in carbon emissions in the first three months after its outbreak. In the last year
and a half, Covid-19 initiated the “great reset” (Schwab and Malleret 2020) by sharply
accelerating other economic and technological processes – remote work, surveillance, quarantine
and restriction of rights of huge masses of people, mass application of until recently
experimental biotechnologies. If the Green Deal is tearing apart geopolitical constellations
established for many decades (the sharp reduction in the burden of oil-producing countries vis-à-
vis producers and suppliers of lithium and other rare metals needed for new technologies), then
Covid-19 has intensified competition in the field of artificial intelligence, computer networks,
cutting-edge biotechnology and other high-tech sectors. Both together, however, significantly
change the way of life of huge masses of people – the way we travel, communicate, consume and
even in our relationships with our family and friends. Today, it seems that we are starting to
accept things that were unthinkable until recently – the closing of borders, the mass tracking of
people, the linking of health status to the right to move. At the same time, however, citing
Eurobarometer research, Ivan Krastev claims that confidence in the EU is increasing sharply.
According to him, the change is expressed in the fact that Europe begins to think of itself as a
possible protectionist space. At a moment when the fear appears that everyone is becoming
Contacts:
Plovdiv, “Paisii Hilendarski” University
of Plovdiv, Department of Applied and
Institutional Sociology
E-mail: JMCenter@uni-plovdiv.bg
protectionist, that everyone is closing, the small European countries realized that economically
you can only close at the EU level. Bulgaria could not have its own protectionist policy due to
the absence of a national economy. And this is true for almost all EU countries. The EU, as a
“laboratory for the world” and a role model that successfully tested and enforced the opening and
free movement of ideas, goods, services and capital, is today in a mode of closure, but not
internal encapsulation within the nation-state. If the world is entering a period of isolationism,
what does this mean for the basic European values: freedom, democracy and the application of
"soft power" in international relations?
Panel I: “The Great Covid Restart”: monitoring, tracking, remote work and human
rights”, (moderator Assist. Prof. Dr. Plamen Nanov) – 10.00
Opening of the round table by the project manager – Prof. Ivan Chalakov; 10.00-10.10
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Diana Kovacheva, (Ombudsman of the Republic of Bulgaria); 10.10-10.20
The social situation of young people in post-Covid Europe (Assoc. Prof. Dr. Siyka Kovacheva –
online, Plovdiv University); 10.20-10.30
Measures against COVID-19 and human rights (Prof. Dr. Irena Ilieva, Plovdiv Univesity); 10.30-
10.40
The Covid1-19 pandemic as a paradoxical diagnosis of Bulgarian society (Tihomir Bezlov,
Centre for the Study of Democracy, online); 10.40-10.50
Science and skepticism as (dis)integrative mechanisms (Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tihomir Mitev, PU,
online); 10.50-11.00
Mechanism for recovery and development – essence, meaning and financial dimensions (PhD
student Gancho Kolaksazov); 11.00-11.10
Discussion: 11.10-11.40
Coffee break: 11.40-11.50
Panel II: The “invisible” green deal and its economic, political and social consequences for
Bulgaria, (moderator PhD student Bilyana Mileva).
The new green technologies and the transformation of the new geopolitical alliances? (Prof. Dr.
Ivan Chalakov, Plovdiv University); 11.50-12.00
Priorities before the national plans for recovery and sustainability with a focus on the goals for
decarbonization in the Bulgarian plan (Dr. Martin Vladimirov, Centre for the Study of
Democracy, online); 12.00-12.10
Bulgaria within the framework of the “Green Deal” – problems facing the energy and coal
mining industry (Assoc. Prof. Dr. Valentin Petrusenko, Plovdiv University); 12.10-12.20
The hijacking of the term “green” after overcoming the Covid-19 crisis (Dr. Gavrail Gavrailov,
online); 12.20-12.30
Active differences and strategic development of perspectives in the approach to green energy of
the EU and the USA (PhD Student Yavor Gospodinov, Plovdiv University); 12.30-12.40
Discussion: 12.40-13.10
Lunch break: 13.10-13.45
Panel III: “The EU in a closing world: challenges facing Bulgaria and South-Eastern
Europe”, (moderator Prof. Dr. Ivan Chalakov).
The globality and regionality of science face to face with the new situation (view from the
perspective of medieval philosophy research) (Prof. Dr. Georgi Kapriev, Sofia University,
online); 13.45-13.55
The EU and (dis)integration (PhD student Bilyana Mileva, PU) 13.55-14.05
Shifting the geopolitical layers in the context of Covid-19 – (prof. Dr. Ivo Hristov, Plovdiv
University); 14.05-14.15
The historical-linguistic dispute between the Republic of Bulgaria and the Republic of North
Macedonia through the eyes of EU law (PhD Student Dimitar Angelov, Plovdiv University);
114.15-14.25
The election process in Bulgaria on April 4, 2021 (a sociological observation) (PhD student Ivan
Lazarov, Plovdiv University); 14.25-14.35
The political participation of Bulgarian migrants (Assist. Prof. Dr. Plamen Nanov, Plovdiv
University); 14.35-14.45
Discussion: 14.45-15.15
Closing: 15.15-15.30
