The Hungarian–Bulgarian Joint Academic Committee of Historians organized a conference with additional events, a “round table” discussion and an introduction of Hungarian and Bulgarian scholarly publications on regional history in Sofia on May 15–19, 2012.

The meeting organized by two academic Institutes of History was entitled Regions, Borders, Societies, Identities in Central- and Southeast Europe. The event was also supported by the Hungarian Department of St. Clement of Ohrid University of Bitola and the Hungarian Cultural Institute in Sofia. Welcome speeches were given by Miklós Pék, charge d’affaires at the Hungarian embassy, Iliya Todev, the new director of Bulgarian University of Sciences, Toso Donchev, leader of the Hungarian Cultural Institute in Sofia, as well as Valeri Stojanov and Imre Ress, Presidents of the Joint Committee. The Hungarian participants were Mónika F. Molnár, László Bíró, Gábor Demeter, Árpád Hornyák, Krisztián Csaplár-Degovics and Attila Pandula. (Because of prolonged foreign absence of several committee members, this March the Hungarian section of the Committee was completed with new members – László Bíró, József Juhász, Éva Ring, Krisztián Csaplár-Degovics, Iván Bertényi.)

A traditional accompanying event of the meeting of historians is a book premiere of relevant publications released since the last conference, hosted by the Hungarian Cultural Institute. The Bulgarian party granted books for international distribution to the library of the HAS RCH Institute of History. The visit was finished with a trip to the famous 19th century merchant town Koprivstica where the first shots of the 1876 rebellion were fired.

The agreement on academic cooperation is about to expire; the idea of a prolongation was agreed on both parties. The next conference is planned to be held in 2014 with the title Contacts and Conflicts in Central- and South East Europe.

Gábor Demeter – Imre Ress