site.btaEurope in the Balkans Conference in Smolyan Discusses Successful EU-Funded Projects

Experts presented successful EU-funded projects at a conference of the series "Europe in the Balkans: A Common Future", organized by the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA). It was held at BTA's National Press Club in the southern town of Smolyan on Tuesday.

State and local government representatives and the team of the Regional Information Centre participated in the event.

Opening the forum, Smolyan Deputy Regional Governor Zarko Marinov said cooperation among the Balkan countries in the context of EU cohesion policy was taking place rather slowly. He cited as an example the delay in the launch of the Rudozem-Xanthi checkpoint on the border with Greece, which is key to the opening of the Central Rodopi Mountains to the Aegean Region. That border checkpoint has no alternative for the economic development of the region and the delay is one of the causes of its depopulation, Marinov said.

If the checkpoint had opened back in 1998, life in the entire region, both on the Bulgarian and on the Greek side of the border, would have been different, said engineer Momchil Karaivanov from the Regional Administration, coordinator of the Regional Centre of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences for Smolyan Region.

A total of 944 EU-funded projects worth over BGN 425 million have been implemented in Smolyan Region, said Zornitsa Stavreva, an expert at the Regional Information Centre. Smolyan Municipality is the leader with 306 projects worth BGN 247 million.

The BTA project "Europe in the Balkans: A Common Future" is supported by the European Commission. It aims to foster a better understanding of the role of cohesion policy in the Balkans; to raise awareness of projects funded by the EU through the Cohesion Funds; promote dialogue on the results of the projects at local level and boost civic participation in issues related to cohesion policy.

The project is funded with EUR 348,871. To achieve the project's aims, BTA is using a media mix and expects to reach out to between 700,000 and 1 million people in Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, North Macedonia, Greece and Turkiye.