Sofia hosts an Interact event under the Europe Closer to Citizens policy

Deputy Minister Boneva: In Bulgaria we are already starting to implement the reform in regional planning

“There are major innovations in the current programming period 2021-2027 - an integrated approach to overcome fragmentation in investments and the use of a two-phase application to bring strategic thinking at territorial level. All this is within the framework of Policy Objective 5 “Europe Closer to the Citizens”. This is what Deputy Minister of Regional Development and Public Works Angelina Boneva said at the opening of a training session on project management to be implemented within the Integrated Territorial Strategies of the CBC programmes, in which Bulgaria participates together with Türkiye, Serbia, North Macedonia and Romania.

The innovation of integrated territorial investment combines the advantages of bottom-up regional planning and top-down sectoral coordination. She presented to the audience the reform of regional planning in Bulgaria, which is starting to be put into practice, building on our country’s experience from the previous two programming periods and already reported as implemented under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (the NRRP).

Nathalie Verschelde, the European Commission’s DG for Regional and Urban Policy responsible representative, also stressed the need for integrated investment, especially in border regions, emphasising the innovation and dialogue that Policy Objective 5 “Europe Closer to the Citizens” requires from both central government and regional and local institutions and their partners. Representatives of the European Commission also briefed the audience on the key points in the effective management of the integrated projects to be implemented within the territorial strategies of the cross-border regions of the programmes with Serbia, North Macedonia and Türkiye.

More than 50 representatives of the partner national authorities, the Territorial Strategy Management Boards and the operational units of the cross-border programmes participate in the training. This is the first ever joint event under the “Europe Closer to Citizens” policy and takes place in Sofia on 5 and 6 July 2023 with the support of the INTERACT Programme. The two-day workshop is organised by the Managing Aurhority in the MRDPW of Bulgaria’s cooperation programmes with Serbia, North Macedonia and Türkiye.