President Georgi Purvanov of Bulgaria received Alexei Miller, Gasprom boss, in Varna on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast

President Georgi Purvanov of Bulgaria received Alexei Miller, Gasprom boss, in Varna on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast. They took stock of prospects to increase Russian natural gas piping via Bulgaria. The agenda included transit charges, bilateral partnership in gas industry, prospects to gasify Bulgaria, and the Russian corporate mammoth's involvement in Bulgarian industrial privatisation, Gasprom PR say in a press release. The European Business Congress opened its 7th annual conference in Varna today to gather 250 delegates and guests from more than twenty OSCE countries. Alexei Miller, Congress and Gasprom Board president, was chairing. The conference is summing up seven years' partnership within the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and an East-West dialogue of the political and business communities. The European Business Congress is entering a new developmental stage as European integration is making rapid progress, a common economic environment is emerging throughout Europe, and the European Union energy market is gradually liberalised, Mr. Miller said in an opening address. The European Business Congress brings together 75 companies based in twenty OSCE member countries, banking and industrial mammoths prominent among them. A general meeting is supreme Congress body. The Congress tackles practical issues of European economic partnership. It offers initiatives to remove obstacles to enterprise, and promote entrepreneurial safety and efficiency. Congress work is going on in six ad hoc committees-Information and Communications; Legislation, Banking and Finance; Energy; Ecology and Health Protection; Entrepreneurial Security; and, last but not least, Industry and Construction.