The Iman Foundation
PROMOTING DIALOGUE • CHALLENGING EXTREMISM • BRINGING CHANGE
Advisory Board

The Hon. Dr. Soloman Passy (Bulgaria)

Dr. Soloman Passy is the Founder & President of the Atlantic Club of Bulgaria and the former Foreign Minister of Bulgaria (2001-2005).

Other positions previously held by Dr. Passy are: Chairman-in-Office of the OSCE (2004), Chairman of the UN Security Council (2002-2003)Chairman of Foreign / Foreign and Defense Parliamentary Committees (2005-2009 / 2001),Chairman of the US Caucus in the Bulgarian Parliament (2005-2009), Bulgaria’s nomination for Secretary General of NATO (2009), Chairman of Transparency & Accountability Committee of OSCE PA (2005-2009), Vice-President of the Atlantic Treaty Association, Paris (1996-1999), Member of Parliament 3 times, Leader of opposition and freedom fighting movements (1985-1990), Member of 4 Bulgarian Antarctic Expeditions (1993-2005) and Computer Scientist at Sofia University / Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (1979-1994).

In 1990, Dr Passy MP launched a Parliamentary Bill to withdraw Bulgaria from the Warsaw Pact and join NATO. He has been dedicated to this cause for 14 years and in his capacity of a Foreign Minister he succeeded in negotiating Bulgaria’s invitation (2002) and accession to NATO (2004). In 2009 he was nominated by the Bulgarian Government for Secretary General of NATO.

In 1990, Dr Passy MP launched the Parliamentary Bill for Bulgaria’s accession to the EU. Between 2001 and 2005 Minister Passy succeeded in negotiating the EU membership of Bulgaria and the date of accession as well as in signing the Accession Treaty (2005) and ratifying it through the Bulgarian Parliament. During 2005-2006, under his Chairmanship of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Bulgarian Parliament all other ratifications and procedures were completed and Bulgaria joined the EU on January 1, 2007.

Together with then Secretary of State Colin Powell, he initiated (2003) the BG-US Agreement for installation of BG-US defense bases in Bulgaria, an Agreement which Dr. Passy ratified as a Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee (2006). Dr. Passy was the first to launch this idea during the campaign for liberation of Kosovo and the Balkans from Milosevic's dictatorship in 1999.

Minister Passy established three new key institutions at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs: the EU Minister of Bulgaria, the Diplomatic Institute and the Cultural Institute of MFA (which is probably the richest open air sculptural collection in the new Bulgarian history).

Minister Passy was the chief negotiator with Libya (2001-2005) for the successful release of the 6 Bulgarian medics, detained there and held hostages by the Libyan regime of Col. Gaddafi, and masterminded the trilateral coalition US-EU-BG on whose behalf he led the negotiations.

As Chairman-in-Office of OSCE (2004) Dr. Passy launched inter-faith dialogue between Christians, Muslims and Jews as well as a strategic program for reforms in OSCE, still in progress, leading to democratization, defense of human rights and outreach to the countries East of the Black Sea.

Dr. Passy is the author (1990-1991) of the first Parliamentary Bill for abolishment of the death penalty in Bulgaria and is a co-author of the Bulgarian Constitution.

Between 1993-2005 he was a member of 4 Bulgarian Expeditions to Livingston Island, Antarctica. As a result of those efforts and the Bulgarian Antarctic community, Bulgaria acceded to the Antarctic Treaty in 1998. Peak Passy on Livingston Island was named in recognition of his accomplishments with the program.

Minister Solomon Passy was the one to formulate and launch in 2004 the project for replacement of the poppy crops in Afghanistan with Bulgarian roses, a project which is flourishing today, as demonstrated during the Groene Woche, the International Agriculture and Food Fair in Berlin (2011).

In the spring of 2008 Solomon and his wife, Gergana Passy, launched before the European Commission, the EU Presidency and EU institutions the idea for universal standardization of all GSM mobile chargers. The EU bodies, the world GSM Association and the World Telecom Union accepted their motivated proposal which is in effect as of January 2011. This policy will save annually over 20 million tons of electronic waste and CO2 emission and will considerably help countering the global warming.

The latest project of Solomon and Gergana is to secure universal public access to Wi-Fi Internet across the entire territory of the EU – the newest Universal Human Right recognized by the UN.