Bulgaria nominated to the WTO Executive Council

The Minister of Tourism Ilin Dimitrov, PhD, presented Bulgaria’s candidacy for participation in the WTO Executive Council with an official letter to the Secretary General of the UN World Tourism Organization (WTO) Zurab Pololikashvili. The aim is to fill one of the vacant seats for the Europe region on the WTO Executive Council for the period 2023-2027.

The Executive Council is the operational governing body that ensures that the WTO implements its work programme and adheres to its budget. A total of 35 countries (10 of them European) are members of the Executive Council, 34 of which are elected for a term of four years, while Spain remains the permanent representative.  

Among the main powers of the Council are to take all necessary measures, in consultation with the Secretary-General, to implement the decisions and recommendations of the Assembly; to prepare and submit recommendations and proposals to the Assembly; to consider the regular reports received from the Secretary-General on the state of the Organization, etc. Bulgaria is an active member of the WTO, having previously served on the Executive Council in the periods 1982-1985, 2004-2007, 2010-2013 and 2013-2017.

In 2023, the mandate of four of the European countries that are members of the WTO Executive Council - France, Italy, Portugal and Türkiye - will expire, as will that of the Russian Federation, which has terminated its full membership of the organisation. Voting for the vacant seats will take place at the 68th meeting of the Regional Commission for Europe (RCE Europe) to be held in Bulgaria in 2023.  

Our country’s candidacy is yet another proof of Bulgaria’s ambition to raise significantly the awareness of its international partners on its vision for regional and global policies and processes in this key sector of the world economy. At the same time, Bulgaria’s election as host country of the Regional Commission Europe meeting is an act of unconditional support at the highest institutional level by the most renowned format for cooperation in the sector.