Deputy Minister Valentina Varbeva: We will strive to support upgrading the capacity of municipalities for effective financial management

We will strive to support upgrading the capacity of municipalities for effective financial management and providing more and better services to citizens according to the needs and priorities of local communities. This was stated by Deputy Minister of Regional Development and Public Works Valentina Varbeva, who took part in the 40th session of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, which took place online.

At the meeting was commented and approved a report on the results of the monitoring mission of the Congress held in December last year and adopted recommendations for the implementation of the European Charter of Local Self-Government by Bulgaria. Deputy Minister Varbeva noted that these missions are extremely useful for each member state of the Council of Europe, as an external view builds an objective picture and improves the approach and measures to promote democracy at all levels of government.

"Bulgaria has come a long way and made significant progress in implementing the Charter, implementing a strategy for decentralisation of public administration, transferring powers at the local level along with increasing resources for their implementation. The institutionalisation of procedures for consultation with representatives of local self-government, the expansion of civic participation in the affairs of local government, the application of the principles of innovative and good democratic governance in more and more Bulgarian municipalities are also part of the positive progress. We have reformed regional development councils in order to encourage the participation of local representatives in decision-making on regional development policies. All these facts, circumstances and observations have found their place in the report on Bulgaria, "said Deputy Minister Varbeva.

Despite the progress, the report states that there are still problems with the assessment of local authorities to adapt the implementation of delegated activities to local conditions, the strong dependence of local authorities on transfers from the state budget, the lack of commensurability with local government responsibility resources and the generally low level of financial autonomy of local self-government. Some of the reasons for these problems may be related to the general financial, economic and demographic situation of the country, on the one hand, but also to insufficient efforts to upgrade the institutional and administrative capacity of subnational governments for effective and efficient management and financial control, on the other hand. "The recommendations of the Congress give a clear signal of what measures to take to overcome the shortcomings and to address the challenges in the future," said Varbeva. The recommendation to revise the legislation in the direction of increasing fiscal autonomy presupposes actions affecting a number of important public spheres, aspects and reforms of budget programming and budgetary relations in the country. "These actions and reforms are subject to in-depth analysis, debate and policy decisions," the deputy regional minister said. In the short term, however, local authorities could benefit from their mandate to manage local taxes and fees, as well as from being given the opportunity to collect them procedurally. "In the context of the new challenges of European integration and the global partnership, competitiveness, sustainable development and crisis management, we recognize the need for a new approach and set of tools to encourage local authorities to pursue their own policies for sustainable economic, social and territorial development", said Deputy Minister Varbeva.