AUSTRIA, in assuming the presidency of the European Union, has named as one of its priorities helping to develop the competitiveness of the EU.

For the EU to be competitive, it needs a properly educated and trained workforce, with a full range of skills.

Competitiveness also requires that each of the component states of the EU is able to contribute a workforce capable of competing, and with an economy geared to growth, consumption, and a surplus to spend on research and development. For the sake of the EU collectively and for its individual members, it can afford no weak links.

Going by the statistics and the projections based on them, there is considerable cause for concern about the future of Bulgaria.

Not only is its birthrate in negative territory, and not only is it losing people to other areas of the world - not all of them within the EU - but it also faces the problem that sectors of the population with the highest birth rate tend to be those with the lowest levels of education. The sectors are Bulgaria's ethnic minorities, including the Roma, who are meant to be the subject of a programme to develop their inclusion in broader Bulgarian society. While this point was not mentioned specifically during the recent high-level discussions on the demographic question, it seems to suggest that serious effort is required to transform the Decade of Roma Inclusion Programme beyond mere lip-service.

Beyond that, the proposals raised so far from various quarters of the Government are to be welcomed.

Indeed, a sensible approach is required to encourage people to have children, and to take the point made by President Georgi Purvanov, to make sure that these children have a proper quality of life, education and health care. Purvanov is correct in suggesting that this requires systemic solutions, rather than mere cash handouts, which in themselves will not solve the socio-economic problems.

Plans are for a range of government departments to come up with a package of solutions to address the demographic crisis by the end of the year. There is every reason to encourage these departments to meet this deadline, because it does not take an expert to realise that any solution will take years, if not decades, to bear fruit.

The notion of encouraging emigrant Bulgarians to return to the country is also to be welcomed. At the moment, their skills and initiative are helping to build other economies, and a move to bring them home would be of benefit to all concerned.

At the same time, consideration needs to be given to re-considering Bulgaria's immigration policy, or at least, coming up with one, because it seems that while there are laws governing immigration to Bulgaria, there is no coherent policy. In the same way that the country needs to attract monetary investments, it needs to attract people to invest their lives here - educated people, young, and in good health, who could bequeath a considerable legacy to the country. In turn, in the face of a competitive world, Bulgaria needs to come up with an innovative immigration policy complete with incentives. This does not imply that the country should dilute itself and its character with foreign influences, but rather seek to attract people to become part of the mix that is Bulgaria, fully loyal citizens identifying fully with the country.

We hope that in a year's time, some action on this front will have been taken. The alternative is for Bulgaria to begin to dwindle to becoming an increasingly impoverished, dependent province of Europe, a scenario that would diminish the country, the region, and the continent as a whole.