Procedures for nearly 2 billion leva will be announced by the end of the year under the Development of Regions Programme 2021-2027. This was announced by the Deputy Minister of Regional Development and Public Works, Desislava Georgieva, who chaired the first meeting of the newly formed Monitoring Committee for the programme. The event was attended by representatives of the Directorate General for Regional and Settlement Policy at the European Commission, mayors of municipalities, deputy ministers, beneficiaries of the programme, experts from various departments, representatives of NGOs and business organisations, etc. Deputy Minister Georgieva noted that the amount represents about 65% of the total budget of the programme for the period 2021-2027, which amounts to BGN 3.6 billion. Both of its priorities - Integrated Urban Development and Integrated Territorial Development of Regions - will be worked on in parallel. Measures for Integrated Territorial Investments are at an advanced stage and will involve more significant resources. 

"We are in communication with all the managing authorities of the other European programmes that will contribute resources to the implementation of the integrated development approach. "We expect to launch the calls for applications in the next two months," Georgieva said. She clarified that the support is divided into two phases, the first of which will be concept applications. The regional development councils, in which different stakeholders participate, will play an important role. They will have to prioritise investments according to the needs in the region, i.e. the most important projects for each region. At a later stage, each managing authority of the programmes contributing to the integrated approach will launch calls for proposals so that the actual contracts can be concluded and funds allocated to the approved territorial investments.

"What is most important now is to select the key investments under both priorities," said the Deputy Regional Minister. The public procurement will be announced next year after the contracts with the managing authorities have been signed, she clarified, saying that this year will be focused on selecting the important investments under the two priorities of the programme.

During the meeting, Deputy Minister Georgieva also presented the progress in the implementation of the Operational Programme "Regions in Growth" 2014-2020. BGN 2.331 billion have been disbursed, representing 74% of the budget. The funds certified by the EC are 61% or almost 2 billion BGN. In the remaining 9 months, the efforts of the MoRDB will be focused on minimizing the risk of losing funds under the program, caused by the crisis with the drastic increase in the price of construction materials, which delays the implementation of various projects, mainly in the field of renovation of cultural facilities, educational institutions and health infrastructure.

Source: Ministry Of Regional Development and Public Works