39 Bulgarian Municipalities Officially Awarded BGN 1.4 B under OP Regions in Growth 2014-2020

Bulgaria’s Regional Development Ministry has granted 39 municipalities a total of BGN 1.4 B under operational program Regions in Growth 2014-2020.

During an official ceremony on Monday, local authorities were authorized to select and evaluate the projects to be financed under the program.

Bulgaria’s Regional Development Minister Lilyana Pavlova awarded the agreements to the municipalities.

She noted that the new role of municipalities of intermediate bodies of the Managing Authority of the program marked a major change.

Pavlova explained that municipalities were to prepare their investment programs, select projects, and present them for the Managing Authority’s approval.

She assured representatives of local authorities that the Regional Development Ministry assist them with trainings, expertise, guidelines, etc.

Pavlova said that the fact that municipalities were now fully responsible for the selection of projects also posed risks, adding that they could not explain possible errors with the lack of assistance on the part of the Managing Authority.

She boasted that Bulgaria was the first of the 28 EU Member States to start distributing the largest allocation under the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) among integrated urban development projects following the principle of full decentralization.

Bulgaria’s Regional Development Minister, as cited by money.bg, announced that the resources earmarked for this goal amounted to 54% of the budget of operational program Regional Development 2014-2020, or 22% of the total funding granted under the ERDF to Bulgaria.

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