site.btaPresident Radev Meets with Association of Mayoralties

Sofia, February 16 (BTA) - Meeting with the National Association
 of Mayoralties in the Republic of Bulgaria here on Tuesday,
President Rumen Radev noted that financial independence and
greater freedom in local-level decision making are key to
Bulgaria's successful development, the President's Press
Secretariat reported. "The State is democratic, humane and
socially just when these principles are upheld in even the
smallest of settlements," he said.

The Association representatives identified the systematic
failure to cope with conventional crime and the lack of access
to health care as the worst problems of small population
centres. They stressed that for years, the prosecution service
has ignored offences against property and the person, often
refusing to recognize them as crimes. The mayors called for a
permanent rather than sporadic presence of police officers in
the villages.

Health care must be a matter of state policy, not of trade, and
should reach even the most remote settlements, the mayors said.
Medicine graduates could start their career in the small
settlements, which are most in need of health care for their
aging population.

Radev said the lack of administrative resources needed to
prepare projects for EU financing in the small settlements could
 be remedied with the help of municipalities. He stressed that
the considerable financing Bulgaria will receive under the EU
Recovery Plan should be invested in such a way as to reach
people in smaller settlements, not just in major projects. Radev
 cited an air ambulance service project proposed by the
Administration of the President for inclusion in Bulgaria's
Recovery and Resilience Plan.

The preparation and organization of the April 4 parliamentary
elections was also discussed at the meeting.

The Association members will submit to the President proposals
for organizational and legislative changes that could facilitate
 the operation of local government, and expect him to raise
those issues at the cabinet formation consultations with the
political parties after the elections.
NV/DD