At the end of a year filled with many successful initiatives in the field of road safety, it is time not only to take stock of what has been done, but together to launch an integrated, interesting and comprehensive cooperation between the institutions on local, regional and national level, businesses and NGOs to be able to contribute in providing the necessary safety for all road users on the Bulgarian roads.

On December 4, 2013 the "Open Youth" association and the "Annual Road Safety Awards" foundation jointly organize the first Bulgarian Road Safety Forum with international participation. The event will be held in "Serdica" hall of the Sheraton Sofia Hotel Balkan. Experts from Bulgaria, Belgium, Hungary, Greece and the Netherlands confirmed participation in the forum. The chosen theme for 2013 is "Road Safety - Challenges and Solutions". We have tried to minimize the handling of dry statistics in the program and involve less discussed issues concerning infrastructure (road safety audit), insurance ("bonus-malus" system), economics (financial impact of the problem), ISO 39001:2012 (safety certification), and innovations in the field of prevention of risks on the road. Knowing that it is very difficult for the good news to become "news" today, our goal is not only to mention how many victims there are on the Bulgarian roads, but also to celebrate each life saved in 2013. So we hope to speak less about what we have done in the past year and more about the forthcoming in the near and distant future.

Program for the day:
13:00 to 13:30: Press conference / Grand Opening / project outcome UPDATE - combining messages about responsible driving behavior and European citizens’ rights understanding
Mr. Daniel Vankov, Chairman of Open Youth; Commissioner Anton Antonov, Head of the Traffic Police department, Chief Directorate "National Police" at the Ministry of Interior; Mr. Pieter Folkerstma, representing "Vriestyle Projects", Netherlands (evaluators and experts in the field of road safety), and Mr. Axel Druart, President of the European Youth forum for Road Safety,  will participate in the pressconference.

13:00 to 14:00: Registration and coffee
14:00 to 17:00: Conference "Road Safety - Challenges and Solutions"

The conference will be organized by Open Youth in the framework of Work Package 2 of the project “Road safety in South East European regions” (ROSEE), which is supported by the European Union South East Europe Transnational Cooperation Programme. Speakers:

14:00 to 14:15: Mr. Daniel Vankov (moderator), Chairman, "Open Youth" association
14:15 to 14:30: Commissioner Anton Antonov, Head of "Traffic Police", Directorate General "National Police", Ministry of Internal Affairs
14:30 to 14:45: Mr. Johan Chiers, Director, TOP -25 ( Belgium)
14:45 to 15:00: Mr. Preslav Borisov, MEP, Group of the European People's Party
15:00 to 15:15: Dr. Rumen Milanov, Department "Roads”, University of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy
15:15 to 15:30: Dr. Christina Nikolova, Deputy Director of the Centre for Sustainable Development, University of National and World Economy
15:30 to 15:45: Mr. Nikolaos Bakas, Quality and Security Ltd. (Greece)
15:45 to 16:00: Mr. Peter Folkertsma, Director, Responsible Young Drivers (Netherlands)
16:00 to 16:15: Mrs. Albena Alexieva, Insmarket.bg
16:15 to 16:30: Mrs. Mila Todorova, Marketing Director, Intertek BA Ltd.
16:30 to 16:45: Mr. Imre Enuedi, Director "European projects", Association of Students and Civil Society (Hungary)
16:45 to 17:00: Mr. Vladimir Todorov, Chairman, Bulgarian Association of People Insured and Victims in Car Accidents

17:00 to 17:30: Coffee Break and Networking
17:30 to 19:00: Opportunity to establish contacts in an informal setting and use of preventive tools (driving simulators, alcogoggles etc.).

19:00 to 21:30: Ceremony Bulgarian "Annual Road Safety Awards" 2013

The ceremony will be organized by the "Annual Road Safety Awards" Foundation.

Registration for participation: http://www.open-youth.org/forum-registration.php