Bulgaria to Merge Municipalities - Report

Тhe Bulgarian central government is considering merging local municipalities in a new bid to cut down state spending, reports Bulgarian daily Sega Monday.

This measure might reduce to non-existence “nearly 30% of municipalities” in Bulgaria, writes Sega quoting Lyuben Tatarski, chair of the Parliamentary Committee on Regional Development.

Minister of regional development Rosen Plevneliev was more ambivalent about the matter, saying that staging a territorial reform requires “broad public debate,” but said he was ready to take up the matter should the GERB party decide on it.

At present municipalities in Bulgaria are 264. GERB's suggestion might merge as many as 79 of them to reduce the local government budget and to “increase the efficiency of regional EU-funds absorbtion.”

Representatives of municipalities have many times voiced opposition and skepticism about the financial usefulness of such a move.

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