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Cross-border Talks
Cross-Border Talks is an independent medium ran by journalists from Poland, Bulgaria and Czechia.
December 2022, announcement on the European Commission’s website: Romania will receive €2.14 billion from Just Transition Fund to diversify the economy and provide new opportunities for those losing their jobs in mining and energy – in six regions. One year later, a similar announcement appears on Bulgaria: it is to receive €1.2 billion from the same source to create new jobs in three coal regions and to protect communities that had depended on coal mining for decades.![]()
A total of nine regions with an industrial past (and present) should have a new future in a green Europe – or at least hope for such. By the end of 2024, we embark on a journey towards some of them to see whether hope becomes reality. And if not, then why.
Just Transition: mission impossible? Chapter one: stories from Romania and Bulgaria
open.substack.com
December 2022, announcement on the European Commission’s website: Romania will receive €2.14 billion from Just Transition Fund to diversify the economy and provide new opportunities for those losi...
"Ensuring no one is left behind" is the motto of the Just Transition Mechanism. Launched in 2021 as part of the European Green Deal, the mechanism was designed to mitigate the economic and social impact of abandoning carbon-intensive industries in regions that were economically dependent on them. In other words, it was designed to stimulate the creation of alternative jobs in climate-neutral sectors, thus preventing mass unemployment of former miners, increased poverty and depopulation of coal regions.![]()
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In late 2024 and early 2025, the Cross-border Talks team, Malgorzata Kulbaczewska-Figat and Vladimir Mitev, visited Pernik and Stara Zagora in Bulgaria and the Jiu Valley in Romania to study the state of progress, obstacles, solutions and attitudes towards just transition. The following article is the main publication on just transition in Bulgaria and Romania that they wrote. It is based on a series of interviews with economists, politicians, just transition experts, NGO representatives, trade unionists, etc. ![]()
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The picture that emerges from these interviews is of a difficult, shaky and disengaged just transition process. There is mistrust between stakeholders, a sense that important information is not being shared in negotiations about the stages and procedures of just transition, and resistance to change. The international political context, with an anti-environmental and pro-fossil fuel US administration, the rise of the sovereignist tendency in Romania and political fragmentation and polarisation in Bulgaria, further complicates reform.![]()
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Malgorzata and Vladimir did this project with support from Journalismfund Europe - a Belgian fund for cross-border journalism. More articles are there to come and they will deal also with the just transition in Poland and Czechia. ![]()
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www.crossbordertalks.eu
December 2022, announcement on the European Commission’s website: Romania will receive €2.14 billion from Just...
On 17 March 2025, the director of the film The Seed of the Sacred Fig received the FIPRESCI Platinum Award at the Sofia Film Festival 2025. On this occasion, the Persian Bridge of Friendship republished Siyavash Shahabi’s review of the film. At the event, Rasoulof said that none of his films had been officially screened in Iran. He also recalled various situations during the past 15 years that he has spent in prison in the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Persian Bridge of Friendship intends to publish soon excerpts from Rasoulof’s question and answer session with the public in Sofia after the screening of his film.![]()
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The sacred fig and the death of patriarchy - Cross-border Talks
www.crossbordertalks.eu
Review of Mohammad Rasoulof's movie
Interview with Karadeniz Press about the current political situation in Bulgaria and Sofia’s foreign policy towards Russia, Ukraine, Romania and North Macedonia![]()
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www.crossbordertalks.eu
Interview with Karadeniz Press about the current political situation in Bulgaria and Sofia's foreign policy towards Russia, Ukraine, Romania and North Macedonia
Poland's post-Socialist history has been a success story due to a number of factors. Speedy deregulation was not exactly one of them - yet Donald Tusk seems to ignore this when announcing a new pro-business era.
Donald Tusk's Vision for Poland: Unlocking the Future or Selling It Short? - Cross-border Talks
www.crossbordertalks.eu
Since his return to power, Donald Tusk has sought to project the image of a...