site.btaCouncil of Europe Recommends that Bulgaria Adopt a National Strategy for Training Municipal Employees

Natalia Militello, Senior Project Officer at the Centre of Expertise for Good Governance of the Council of Europe said here Tuesday that the issue of staffing at the local level should not be underestimated as it is essential for the process of municipal autonomy. She recommended that Bulgaria develop a national training strategy and also establish a national training agency.

Militello was speaking at the closing conference on the 22BG07 project about the development of fiscal de-centralization and improvement of financial management at the local level in Bulgaria. The project is co-funded by the EU through the Technical Support Instrument, in cooperation with the European Commission. The conference was organized by the National Association of Municipalities in the Republic of Bulgaria (NAMRB).

Militello briefly presented the work on the initiative itself, as well as the achieved results of the project. "The conclusions are not so pessimistic", Militello summarized and added that in the large municipalities a good basis has been created for fiscal decentralization and service management.

A local finance benchmark instrument was also developed within the project. The tool, which is available on the NAMRB  website, has already been tested in nine municipalities and has been adapted to the Bulgarian reality.