On December 9, a day before Human Rights Day, a roundtable discussion on the practices and challenges of combating trafficking in human beings in Europe was held in Sofia. Presented was a general message of the necessity of cross-border co-operation, and of the conviction of the possibility to change the situation in Bulgaria.

The meeting at the hotel Arena di Serdica was organised by the embassy of Finland in Bulgaria, along with the embassy of Norway and the National Commission for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings; it came as part of the Finnish rotating chairmanship of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, a globe-encompassing security institution.

Bulgaria is in the third place in Europe for the trafficking of women with the goal of prostitution; in fact, the amount of trafficking for sexual exploitation has increased since Bulgaria entered the European Union on January 1 2007, Finnish ambassador Kauko Jämsén said, explaining that preventative measures were the key to changing this.

Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Daniel Vulchev said that women and children made up 80 per cent of those "exported", with areas of exploitation including the sex trade, labour and organ "donation", this latter being particularly applicable to children.

Keynote speaker Eva Biaudet, OSCE special representative and co-ordinator for combating human trafficking, said that she was "very happy" to see that Bulgaria had a "strong expression of will" to improve the situation.