Online chat with Nickolay Mladenov MEP on the EU foreign policy, Gaza tension and Europe's energy dependency

The EU external policy is the key topic of a forthcoming online discussion with the Member of the European Parliament Nickolay Mladenov (EPP-ED/ GERB).

The chat is scheduled for Monday, January 26, from 4 p.m. Brussels time (5 p.m. in Sofia). Citizens from all Member States are invited to take part in the discussion through the platform http://chat.europe.bg. The working language is English but questions and opinions can also be expressed in French, German and Bulgarian both on-line and in advance via e-mail: info@europe.bg or parliament@europe.bg.

Nickolay Mladenov MEP is invited to be the main participant in this chat with Europe Gateway www.europe.bg readers throughout the EU because of two key foreign policy activities in which he was engaged during the last months.

In the beginning of January the Bulgarian MEP left for an extraordinary two-day mission in Israel. The goal of the visit was to implement an on-the-spot check of the situation in the region following the aggravation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Gaza Strip tensions.

In December 2008 Nickolay Mladenov was appointed as chief observer of the EU for the elections in Ghana. Nominating the MEP for this position was initiated by EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner. For the first time in its democratic history, the Ghana Election Committee formally invited the European Union to set up a team of observers to monitor the fairness of the parliamentary and presidential elections. FOR MORE INFO CLICK HERE.

Nickolay Mladenov MEP is member of the Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection and of the Delegation for Relations with Israel. He is also a substitute member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on Security and Defence, first deputy chair of the Delegation for Relations with Iraq and member of the Delegations for Relations with Afghanistan and with Israel.

The Bulgarian MEP's foreign-policy experience is even wider – in 2006 Nickolay Mladenov was advisor for the Security and the Foreign Affairs Committees in the Iraqi Parliament. Since the beginning of 2008 he has been the first deputy chair of the European Parliament Delegation for Relations with Iraq. He also was the first MEP to address the Iraqi National Assembly.

The online discussion on January 26, 2009 will focus on those and all other challenges which the European Union is facing in its foreign policy. The chat with Nickolay Mladenov is organized within a series of similar internet discussions on topical European issues, organized by the “Now – Interacting with the European Parliament!” initiative (http://parliament.europe.bg), financially supported by the EU.