In Kyustendil, Deputy Minister Delyana Ivanova launched an information campaign for the new programming period under European programs

The Deputy Minister of Regional Development and Public Works Delyana Ivanova launched an information campaign in Kyustendil, which presents the potential opportunities for investment with European funds in the regions of the country.

"The choice of the city is not accidental, but a completely logical decision, with which we want to illustrate in practice the expected effect of European investments. Kyustendil is a city not only with a rich cultural and historical heritage, but also of key importance for European development and cross-border cooperation. It is this integration between cultural and historical heritage, opportunities for business development and socio-economic diversification of the regions that we expect to finance in the new programming period until 2027, "said the Deputy Minister at the opening of the campaign.

Dilyana Ivanova presented the new approach to investment selection set in the Regional Development Program 2021 - 2027 (RDP). It distinguishes large cities from smaller regions in order to avoid the risk that financial resources will not reach smaller settlements. Therefore, priority axis 2 includes 40 medium and large municipalities, which will compete with projects for the distribution of a total of BGN 2.5 billion under the RDP. Of these, the South-West region will distribute BGN 320 million. The funds will be used to finance integrated territorial investments. This resource can be upgraded with funding from almost all other European programs, except for three of them - the Transport Connectivity Program, the Food and Material Assistance Program and the Technical Assistance Program.

The principle of project selection is already based on a bottom-up approach. That is why the key role is played by the local regional councils, which after the selection of potential investment projects will submit them to the Managing Authority of the Regional Development Program for implementation, the Deputy Minister explained.

Under the third axis in the RDP are the funds from the Fund for Fair Transition in the amount of 1.2 billion euros. They will be distributed among the three energy districts in the country - Kyustendil, Stara Zagora and Pernik. Negotiations with the European Commission on this axis are ongoing and therefore funds will be available at a later stage. "The purpose of this fund is to limit the negative consequences of the closure of coal-fired power plants, but not as energy production, but as the creation of alternative employment, alternative economic opportunities and labor market opportunities in the affected regions," he said.

The Deputy Minister also presented the Energy Efficiency Program, which will be financed by the Recovery and Sustainability Plan. Its budget is BGN 1.4 billion. The obligatory condition in this program is that the applicant associations of the owners have an energy and technical inspection, as well as a technical passport of the buildings. These costs are borne by homeowners.

Kyustendil is one of the successful examples of cross-border cooperation. The total resource that the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works manages for the development of the border regions of Bulgaria with the Republic of Northern Macedonia and with Serbia for cross-border cooperation is nearly 70 million euros by 2027.

The Interreg VI-A IPA Bulgaria-Serbia 2021-2027 program has a total budget of just over 38m euros. The planned resource will finance projects to support small and medium-sized enterprises, integrated tourism products, improve mobility and increase security in areas other than urban. Targeted funds will be invested in a project of strategic importance related to preparing the population for disaster response and increasing the capacity of professionals to respond to emergencies in the cross-border area.

The "Interreg VI-A IPA Bulgaria - Northern Macedonia 2021-2027" program has an indicative budget of over BGN 31 million. Funding will be eligible for measures to improve the protection and conservation of nature, biodiversity and environmentally friendly infrastructure, including in urban areas. areas, and reduce all forms of pollution. The program will support investments in the construction of green areas or their development in urban and suburban areas and others.