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Bulgaria fails to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals in terms of migration.

In the European Union, Bulgaria is still in one of the last places to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals and maintains a significant potential for development in this area.

In 2019, Bulgaria ranked 26th out of 28 member states in the EU in terms of meeting the SDGs until 2030. This performance reflects also the progress on all SDGs that focus on migration in general and mobility in particular. Bulgaria reveals a significant potential for improvement and at the same time a clear necessity for catching up with the rest of EU member states in terms of all 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The monitoring report for 2020, published by the Bulgarian Platform for International Development examines Bulgaria’s progress in achieving 3 of the 17 SDGs, namely 4, 8 and 10

In terms of SDG 4 – Ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all, our country is stagnating. Serious difficulties are also noted in the implementation of SDG 10 related to the reduction of inequalities between and within countries. However, Bulgaria is on track to meet its commitments related to SDG 8 in order to stimulate sustained, inclusive, and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment, and decent work for all.

The current monitoring report is an overview of the state and the progress in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals in Bulgaria with a focus on migration. This year’s report focuses on economic migration and mobility on the one hand and their relation to the Sustainable Development Goals on the other. Thus the Мonitoring report from 2019, which provides an overview of the institutional and legal framework in the Republic of Bulgaria in the field of migration, asylum and integration, is supplemented.

The monitoring report gathers, summarizes and analyzes data that makes the connection between the current indicators for the migration processes in the country with the progress in the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. These processes are characterized by clearly expressed emigration character and are an integral part of the labor mobility within the European Union, which is determined by a combination of economic and social factors and reveals significant seasonality in some geographical areas of the country. At the same time, the importance of the national policies and instruments for social and economic integration of migrants, which Bulgaria as an EU member state should apply, is growing.