Philip Dimitrov

Philip Dimitrov Dimitrov ( _bg. Филип Димитров) (born 31 March 1955) is a Bulgarian politician.

Dimitrov was born in Sofia, and graduated from the city's English language high school in 1973. He graduated with a law degree from Sofia University in 1977, and then undertook further study in the field of individual and group psychotherapy using the psycho-dynamic approach. He worked as an attorney in Sofia between 1979 and 1990, serving as Secretary of the Bulgarian Attorneys' Union from 1989 onwards. Bulgarian media have suggested that his office served as a Communist-era secret police hideout. He reacted by giving the first order to reveal data on each citizens request whether there are any data of his/her links with the secret police. He is married to Elena Gueorguieva, MD, but has no children.

Dimitrov was active in the Union of Democratic Forces, a broad coalition against continued rule by the Bulgarian Communist Party. He became a member of its National Coordination Council in 1990, and was its chair from December that year until December 1994. He has been a member of the Executive Council of the UDF since February 1997.

Dimitrov became as Prime Minister of Bulgaria in 1991, but remained in office for only about a year, after losing a confidence vote he called for himself.During its term of office (until the end of 1992), his government managed to make the new democratic institutions work and started an ambitious set of democratic political and economic reforms. Under his administration observance of human rights became an irrevocable legal and ethical norm and previous ethnic tensions and abuses were eliminated. Foreign policy focused on integration into Europe and the West. Bulgaria was the first country to recognize Macedonia unconditionally as a sovereign state. He is often held responsible for the decline of Bulgarian agricultural after 1991 by restoring the land to its legitimate owners immediately instead of allowing a gradual transition from state-owned to private-owned agriculture. This move was said to leave many people in the agriculture sector unemployed(!?). He served in the 36th and 37th legislatures of the National Assembly, being elected in Sofia for the UDF on each occasion. He was a member of the Bulgarian Parliament Delegation for Relations with the European Parliament.

In April 1997 he was appointed Ambassador of Bulgaria at the UN, New York and from August 1998 to January 2002 he was Ambassador of Bulgaria to the US. In 2004 he was a Special Envoy of the President of the CSCE for Armenia and Azerbaijan. He was a visiting scholar in the Woodrow Wilson Center in 2003. Philip Dimitrov teaches political sciences in the American University in Bulgaria since 2002. Member of the Madrid Club of Former heads of State and Government. In 2004 he was Senior member of the NED-CLS team for democratic experience exchange with Georgia. He is member of the Board of the New Bulgarian University, Honorary Chairman of the board of the George Marshal Association – Bulgaria and Program Director at the Bulgarian Institute for Legal Development In September 1999 Mr. Dimitrov was granted the Truman-Reagan Freedom Award for his contribution to overcoming Communism. During the 2008-2009 academic year, Dimitrov holds a position as a visiting professor at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Virginia.

He was elected Deputy Speaker of the 40th session of the National Assembly in 2006.

Member of the Club of Madrid [http://www.clubmadrid.org] . [en [http://www.clubmadrid.org The Club of Madrid is an independent organization dedicated to strengthening democracy around the world by drawing on the unique experience and resources of its Members – 66 democratic former heads of state and government.] ]

Publications

* "For They Lived, Oh Lord"- a novel, 1991 (The Balkans in the first half of the 14th century)
* "The True Story of the Round Table Knights", 1997
* "Light of Men", 2003 (The history of the early church)
* "The Myths of Bulgarian Transition", 2002
* "The New Democracies and the Transatlantic Link",2003

References