Emil StoyanovMember of the European Parliament

Third Conference on the mega project of the European Union Europeana for a single digital library was held in the European Parliament in Brussels. The project Europeana gathered in Brussels, the Bulgarian scientific and political elite with the people from the European institutions, engines of the large-scale project. The conference was initiated by MEP Emil Stoyanov aiming to coordinate all Bulgarian efforts to present the Bulgarian cultural and historical heritage in the digital network. It was attended by leaders of the Committee on Culture from both the European and the Bulgarian Parliament, as well as leading Bulgarian experts from libraries, museums, archives. Special guest was the Bulgarian EU Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva. She greeted the participants of the conference and said: "In today's world, where connections are digital, we must not stay behind. I have no doubts that your presence here will accelerate the digitalization of our cultural heritage. For us it is very pleasant, as we, who represent the Bulgarian people in the EP and I, as your Commissioner.., we are trying to open more windows to Bulgaria and to our culture." Jacques de Decker, a member of the Comité des Sages (a high level group for strategic analysis on the digitalization of the European cultural heritage) to the European Commission, gave very high evaluation of the event organizer. He said: "Mr. Stoyanov, you are a prophet of this cause in Bulgaria. What we could wish is also in other countries to have more people like you who are so good advocates of Europeana." Jacques de Decker added that he learned many useful things from the Bulgarian specialists participating in the conference.