SIGNIFICANCE OF DANUBE REGION FOR THE NATIONAL SECURITY OF REPUBLIC OF BULGARIA
Authors: Manolov Daniel 
Published: August 2019

The paper presents the significance of Danube region for the national security of Republic of Bulgaria. In this regard, the scope and number of the population for the period 2014-2018 of the region are presented. The fastest decline rate with the population of Northwest Bulgaria is one of the main reasons in 2018 a new territorial coverage of level 2 regions to be developed. For the last years, one of the serious concerns of the country is about its population decline. The data about the number of the population of Republic of Bulgaria for the period 2014-2017 from National statistical institute are used. The data represent a significantly higher trend of depopulation of the villages and towns from Danube region in comparison with the overall country trend. The principal determinants, which influence the change of the number and the structure of the population, are the demographic processes – fertility, mortality and migration. The overcoming of the negative demographic trends and the significant disproportion of the regional development is of vital interest for the national security. The wide scope of the Danube region and the fast depopulation trend in the region appear to be prerequisites for disproportions in its development. In this respect, the causal relationships for the disproportions of the development of the region are examined. The report presents the relationship "education-business-demographic structure-national security". The depopulation of the Danube region leads to a serious decreasing in the quality of life and severely restricts the access to public services, which results in permanent damages of the economic activity and causes a social exclusion in a nationwide and regional aspect. The trend of depopulation of significant territories in the country is a destabilizing factor in the strategic environment of the security. One of the main directions to tackle the process of depopulation is to synchronize education to the business in the region. Thus is expected the youth emigration to be reduced. In this respect, the number of the jobs available in the primary market, registered in the labor offices in total for the country and for Danube region for 2017 and 2016 respectively is presented. The management of the demographic crisis in the Danube region is a complex and an inert process in particular, and the results from the measures undertaken will come out after years and even decades. In this regard, the long-term goal is development of national security culture, which should be a natural public basis for the effective and complete implementation of the security policies. The education and the family values are its chief constituents. The enlargement of the social scope of the security policy sets new challenges to the institutional vertical and horizontal coordination of the hierarchical management relations. In order to extend the social scope of the security policy and the development of the national security culture it is necessary to apply new forms of interaction between the education and business, which are expected to lead to better demographic structure of the Danube region.