At the invitation of the Diplomatic Institute of the Ministry of Foreign affairs of the Republic of Bulgaria experts of the Economic Policy Institute lectured in the frameworks of the Ninth Basic Diplomacy Course for junior officers of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The course’s main objectives are to successfully prepare trainee attaches, which will stand before a testimonial committee in order to gain the diplomatic rank “attache” and to broaden their views on the theoretical, as well as on the practical aspects of the international relations and diplomacy.  The course includes topical modules on key issues of Bulgaria’s diplomacy, negotiation, international law, multilateral diplomacy, diplomatic protocol, security policy, consular relations and regional diplomacy.Within the economic module conducted on June 16, 2010 the representatives of the Economic Policy Institute presented the following topics:
• Economic crisis implications in SEE. Competitiveness and regional ranking of Bulgarian economy (Yasen Georgiev, Executive Director, Economic Policy Institute);
• Effects of crisis management. Fiscal weight. Common EU policies in response to the economic crisis. The future of EU budget. The case of Bulgaria (Kalin Marinov, Executive Director, Economic Policy Institute);
• Eurozone – monetary policy. Challenges to Eurozone member countries and perspectives for its further development. Eurozone enlargement and Bulgarian chances for joining the Euro (Nadya Yorgova, Director “Economic Projects nd Programmes”, Economic Policy Institute).