Deputy Minister Delyana Ivanova met with the EC

Additional investments in water supply and sewerage infrastructure are agreed by the Deputy Minister of Regional Development and Public Works Delyana Ivanova in the European Commission.

Her visit to Brussels is on the occasion of the reporting of the Operational Program "Growing Regions" 2014-2020 and the negotiation of the future Program "Development of the Regions" 2021-2027.

It is planned that the investments in the water supply and sewerage infrastructure will be realized in the cities with population between 2000 and 10 000 inhabitants within the new operational program "Development of the regions" 2021-2027, specified Deputy Minister Ivanova. She is holding talks with Agnes Monfre, head of the geographical department for Bulgaria, Croatia and Slovenia in the EC 's Directorate-General for Regional and Settlement Policy, and her team.

In the Belgian capital, the Deputy Minister also met with Slavomir Tokarski, Deputy Director-General of the Directorate-General for Urban and Urban Policy of the European Commission and Director of the Directorate for European Territorial Cooperation. He approved the concept of the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works for integrated territorial development, set out in the new cross-border programs at the EU's external borders. The two discussed progress in preparing new cross-border cooperation programs 2021-2027 between Bulgaria and the Republic of Northern Macedonia, Turkey and Serbia. Dilyana Ivanova pointed out that the new approach in the programs enables local authorities and communities to determine the priority investments according to the needs of the population in the respective region. According to her, in this way effective resource management is achieved. An integrated territorial approach will help build a positive attitude towards shared governance in a cross-border context by setting up joint steering boards of integrated strategies as an important step in strengthening local and regional capacity to manage EU aid. The next steps in the program process were outlined at the meeting, and Ms. Ivanova stressed the commitment of the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works to work on announcing the first calls for applications in 2022.

Delyana Ivanova was also a guest at the Eighth Cohesion Forum, attended by EC President Ursula von der Leyen and European Parliament President Roberta Mezzola and Cohesion and Reform Commissioner Eliza Ferreira.