With a ceremony held as close as possible to International Francophone Day (March 20), Ministry of State Administration employees were recognised on March 24 at the French Cultural Institute in Sofia for their success in completing an intensive course in French language instruction.

This is the third year that such awards have been given. The language training programme, which encompasses more than 384 hours of specialised courses, is a project of Bulgaria’s Ministry of State Administration,the French Cultural Institute and the embassy of France in Bulgaria.

Three hundred forty-eight employees received the certificates this year, 213 of whom are based in Sofia, with the rest working and studying in Bourgas, Pleven, Plovdiv, Varna and Veliko Turnovo. In addition, 30 students took private lessons to reach the goal. To this effect, 30 professors of French language underwent special training to better teach the students.

Speaking at the ceremony, French ambassador Etienne de Poncins said that granting such awards was an honour for France, because it testified to the continued interest in the country. Around the world, there are 68 Francophone countries, of which Bulgaria is one. “The richness of the European Union is this linguistic diversity,” he said. “There would be nothing worse than to have a monolingual EU.”

Nikolai Vassilev, Minister of State Administration, said that the continued linguistic education of Bulgarian governmental employees co-incided with the modernisation of Bulgaria’s state administration. Calling on the people to have more self-confidence, knowledge and qualifications, he said that learning another language upheld these aims.

For France to work with Bulgaria in such a was as to allow these courses to exist was “a long-sighted investment” in Bulgaria’s future, Vassilev said.