The Council of Ministers defined the centres of the six planning regions, announced the Deputy Regional Development and Public Works Minister Petya Gegova at a press conference following the session of the government

The Council of Ministers defined the centres of the six planning regions, announced the Deputy Regional Development and Public Works Minister Petya Gegova at a press conference following the session of the government. The centre of the North Western Planning Region will be Vidin, and it will encompass the districts of Vidin, Vratsa and Montana. The North Central Planning Region includes the districts of Rousse, Veliko Tarnovo, Gabrovo, Pleven and Lovech, and Rousse is defined as the centre. Varna will be the centre of the North Eastern Planning Region, which is comprised of the districts of Varna, Targovishte, Shumen, Razgrad, Silistra and Dobrich. The South Eastern Planning Region unites the districts of Bourgas, Sliven and Yambol, and its centre will be Bourgas. Plovdiv is defined as the centre of the South Central Region, which includes the districts of Plovdiv, Kardzhali, Haskovo, Pazardzhik, Smolyan and Stara Zagora. The centre of the South Western Region will be Sofia, and it includes the city of Sofia and the districts of Sofia, Kjustendil, Blagoevgrad and Pernik. The planning regions are established by the Regional Development Act and are not administrative and territorial units, underlined the Deputy Minister Petya Gegova. She emphasized that the current decision of the government retains the defined centres of planning regions in 2000. The regions thus defined and their centres are quoted at the presentation of the information related to Chapter 21 Regional Policy and Coordination of the Structural Instruments, they are also presented before EUROSTAT. Any change would be viewed as a lack of political commitment to keep the standards in the policy pursued, stated Mrs. Petya Gegova. Photo: /from left to right/ the Director of Strategic Planning of the Regional Policy and Coordination of the Negotiation Process Directorate, Yavor Stoyanov, the Deputy Minister Petya Gegova, and the Director of Territorial Management and Decentralization Directorate, Alexander Mihailov at the press conference PR & International Relations Directorate