site.btaMunicipalities Demand Greater Decentralization

Municipalities Demand Greater Decentralization


Sofia, January 29 (BTA) - The National Association of
Municipalities in the Republic of Bulgaria (NAMRB) asked the MPs
for greater decentralization at the first meeting of the
standing forum on local self-government problems on Wednesday.

The forum was established in line with a cooperation agreement
between Parliament and the Association, signed last December.

The NAMRB wants 20 per cent of the revenues from natural persons
income tax to be available to the municipalities, so they can
co-finance projects funded under EU programmes in 2015-2020.

Todor Popov, Chairman of the NAMRB Board of Directors,
criticized the State for centralizing resources, given that the
municipalities provide over 80 per cent of all public services
with 15 per cent of the public sector resources. By comparison,
EU municipalities perform similar activities with an average of
35 per cent of public resources and account for over 70 per cent
of public investment expenditures, while the Bulgarian
municipalities account for less than 30 per cent of those
expenditures, said Popov.

The Association also wants Parliament to adopt a law on EU
funding which spells out the indicative rules for all
programmes.

Mincho Kazandjiev of the NAMRB said the municipalities are
tasked with activities for which no financing is provided. For
instance, the latest amendments to the Spatial Development Act
assign the municipalities to deal with unlawful construction,
although no financing is allocated for this.

Kazandjiev also said that if the municipalities are granted
their demand, slightly over 500 million leva will go to their
budgets. He added that the agreement with the government
requires that the necessary legislative amendments be made this
year to become effective in 2016.