BEING briefed prior to taking up my appointment here I was told that the embassy in Sofia did not do much in the way of traditional political reporting. "Really," I wondered, "What do they do then?" I must confess that after four years on multilateral disarmament work, I was looking forward to returning to bilateral work, in which political reporting plays an important role.
I needn't have worried. When I got here I soon discovered that departments in London have a voracious appetite for reporting on developments in Bulgaria and the other candidates for NATO and the EU and, as readers of The Sofia Echo will know, there is no shortage of events on which to report. But that is only one aspect of the embassy's activities.
Britain has long supported Bulgaria's aspirations to join NATO and the EU. We worked hard to ensure that Bulgaria got an invitation to NATO at Prague and a target date of 2007 for EU accession at Copenhagen, but our support doesn't stop with diplomatic or political activity, essential as such activity may be.
The European Commission's latest annual report recognised that Bulgaria had a functioning market economy but reiterated concerns about the ability of the Bulgarian institutions to cope with the reforms necessary to adapt to European norms. A lot of the embassy's activity is directed to helping Bulgaria to fill in some of the gaps in - excuse the jargon - administrative capacity in central and local government.
Most of this activity is funded by the Department for International Development although other UK departments are contributing assistance to defence reform and the fight against organised crime and corruption. Under its previous guise as the Know How Fund, DfID has been operating in Bulgaria since 1991. For the period 2002 -2007 we anticipate a budget in the range of ?3 million per annum. There are currently 11 projects under way, with the principal focus on the reform of public administration, regional development, social development and childcare, and the environment. There is also a small grants scheme, in support of our developmental objectives, which gives me the flexibility to give an immediate injection of funding, usually on a one off basis, as was the case with Tradizia, the Bulgarian crafts shop next to the ambassador's residence on Vassil Levski Boulevard.
The amounts of money involved are not enormous, compared with the resources available to the big international players, but small is beautiful. The advantage of running these small programmes bilaterally is that we can often identify an issue, work up a project and secure funding for it relatively quickly. Inevitably, as we are spending the British taxpayer's money, it is impossible to eliminate the paperwork entirely, but my ingenious staff have become expert at submitting proposals which ensure that we get a positive response from London, more often than not.
The name of the game is sustainability - to ensure that when our involvement ceases our Bulgarian partners will continue to run with the ball. Ideally our projects should lead to the development of good models which can be applied nationwide. This is indeed what happened in the case of a pilot scheme to introduce classroom assistants in schools in Roma areas; the idea has been taken up by the Ministry of Education and incorporated in legislation. Similarly we hope that a project to introduce performance appraisal and effective personnel management in two ministries will become the norm in all central ministries and agencies.
Are we making a difference? I like to think so, but then I would say that. But to judge from the warmth of the relationships which we have established with our Bulgarian partners, be it at central or local level, with government or with the NGO's, they seem to think so too.
Keeping a watching eye on this range of activities takes up a lot of time. But it also provides me with a cast iron excuse to get away from my desk, to talk to the people who are making the projects work. So when I have to write the umpteenth telegram about privatisation I can spice up the Sofia gossip with opinion from the grassroots.
I needn't have worried. When I got here I soon discovered that departments in London have a voracious appetite for reporting on developments in Bulgaria and the other candidates for NATO and the EU and, as readers of The Sofia Echo will know, there is no shortage of events on which to report. But that is only one aspect of the embassy's activities.
Britain has long supported Bulgaria's aspirations to join NATO and the EU. We worked hard to ensure that Bulgaria got an invitation to NATO at Prague and a target date of 2007 for EU accession at Copenhagen, but our support doesn't stop with diplomatic or political activity, essential as such activity may be.
The European Commission's latest annual report recognised that Bulgaria had a functioning market economy but reiterated concerns about the ability of the Bulgarian institutions to cope with the reforms necessary to adapt to European norms. A lot of the embassy's activity is directed to helping Bulgaria to fill in some of the gaps in - excuse the jargon - administrative capacity in central and local government.
Most of this activity is funded by the Department for International Development although other UK departments are contributing assistance to defence reform and the fight against organised crime and corruption. Under its previous guise as the Know How Fund, DfID has been operating in Bulgaria since 1991. For the period 2002 -2007 we anticipate a budget in the range of ?3 million per annum. There are currently 11 projects under way, with the principal focus on the reform of public administration, regional development, social development and childcare, and the environment. There is also a small grants scheme, in support of our developmental objectives, which gives me the flexibility to give an immediate injection of funding, usually on a one off basis, as was the case with Tradizia, the Bulgarian crafts shop next to the ambassador's residence on Vassil Levski Boulevard.
The amounts of money involved are not enormous, compared with the resources available to the big international players, but small is beautiful. The advantage of running these small programmes bilaterally is that we can often identify an issue, work up a project and secure funding for it relatively quickly. Inevitably, as we are spending the British taxpayer's money, it is impossible to eliminate the paperwork entirely, but my ingenious staff have become expert at submitting proposals which ensure that we get a positive response from London, more often than not.
The name of the game is sustainability - to ensure that when our involvement ceases our Bulgarian partners will continue to run with the ball. Ideally our projects should lead to the development of good models which can be applied nationwide. This is indeed what happened in the case of a pilot scheme to introduce classroom assistants in schools in Roma areas; the idea has been taken up by the Ministry of Education and incorporated in legislation. Similarly we hope that a project to introduce performance appraisal and effective personnel management in two ministries will become the norm in all central ministries and agencies.
Are we making a difference? I like to think so, but then I would say that. But to judge from the warmth of the relationships which we have established with our Bulgarian partners, be it at central or local level, with government or with the NGO's, they seem to think so too.
Keeping a watching eye on this range of activities takes up a lot of time. But it also provides me with a cast iron excuse to get away from my desk, to talk to the people who are making the projects work. So when I have to write the umpteenth telegram about privatisation I can spice up the Sofia gossip with opinion from the grassroots.
