FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF BULGARIA PETAR STOYANOV

H.E. President Petar STOYANOV, President of the Republic of Bulgaria 1997 – 2002 President and Founder of the Center for Global Dialogue and Cooperation - CGDC

H.E. Petar Stefanov Stoyanov is a Bulgarian politician and was democratically elected as the second President of the Republic of Bulgaria, serving from 1997 to 2002. He won the 1996 presidential election as a candidate of the Union of Democratic Forces (UDF).

From 1992 to 1993 Mr. Stoyanov was Deputy Minister of Justice in the first non-communist (UDF) government of Bulgaria since 1944.

In 1994, as the holder of a doctorate in law, he was elected a member of the 37th National Assembly in Bulgaria and in 1995 he was elected Deputy Chairman of the UDF.

In 2002 he founded the “Petar Stoyanov Centre for Political Dialogue” in Sofia.  He has been involved in different international organizations:  he was a member of Clinton Global Initiative, the European Executive Committee of the Trilateral Commission, and the International Advisory Board of the American Bar Association. Currently, serves as Honorary co-chair of the World Justice Project, and Board Member of the Nizami Ganjavi International Center. Since 2009, President Stoyanov has been President of the Center for Global Dialogue and Cooperation – CGDC, based in Vienna.

Additionally, he has been the winner of numerous awards like the Anti-Defamation League’s Courage to Care Award, the Annual Award of the Association of the Russian Lawyers, etc.