site.btaNational Association of Municipal Council Chairs Elects New Chairperson

The new Management Board of the National Association of Municipal Council Chairs (NAMCC) of the Republic of Bulgaria elected Ventsislav Spiridonov as its chairperson for a second term during the 22nd General Assembly of the Association, held here on Wednesday. Spiridonov is serving as Chair of the Veliko Tarnovo Municipal Council for a third term.

A total of 130 delegates took part in the NAMCC General Assembly. At the beginning, a new Management Board of 25 members and seven members of the Control Board were elected. The members of the association increased to 204 this year, which is a new record for the Association.

Atanas Uzunov, Chairperson of the Plovdiv Municipal Council, said in his welcome address that the long-term joint work with the National Association of Municipalities in the Republic of Bulgaria (NAMRB) proves that municipal councils and municipalities can more quickly and adequately solve problems of local communities than national governments. "Decentralization should not remain on paper, because it is the right path to successful local self-government, which is increasingly faced with situations of working in uncertain environments", Uzunov said.

Inter-municipal cooperation and partnership at the regional level is the new basis for European solidarity, said the chairman of NAMRB Daniel Panov. He called on the Municipal Councils not to become a scaled-down model of the National Assembly and the feuds between political parties not to be carried over to local politics.

In 2023, BGN 114,000 in membership fees were collected from the association, which is also the main source for its budget. Starting next year, the membership fee in NAMCC will increase by BGN 10 and become BGN 40 per member of the Municipal Council, the General Assembly decided on Wednesday.