site.btaAll Three Scenarios for Redrawing Bulgaria's Planning Regions Designate Sofia as a Standalone Region

All three scenarios for redrawing Bulgaria's planning regions designate Sofia as a standalone region, Deputy Prime Minister Tomislav Donchev said during Parliament’s Question Time on Friday.

Currently, Bulgaria is divided into six planning regions: Southwest, South-Central, South-East, North-East, North-Central and North-West. They were established in 2000, and in 2007 they were slightly adjusted because some of the regions did not meet the requirement for minimum number of residents.

Donchev addressed the MPs as he answered a question from GERB-UDF MP Hristo Terziyski about the planned scenarios of the Regional Aid Map for Bulgaria, published on January 28.

The first scenario envisages the division of the country into 4 regions: Northern, Eastern, Southern and Capital. This would entail significant changes in the local administrations, including the regrouping of municipalities and the consolidation of regions.

In the second scenario, the regions would be 5: Capital, West, South-East, South-Central and North. In this option, the scope of two regions – South-Central and South-East would remain unchanged from the current division. This option would provide relative continuity or easier adaptation of current policies set out in the current strategic documents, as entire regions are united and there is no significant regrouping of regions, according to the reasoning for the proposal.

In the third scenario, the regions are again five: West, South, East, North and Capital. This would encourage interaction between industrially strong regions such as Stara Zagora, Sliven and Yambol and the economic centre Plovdiv, as well as a better economic interaction between Plovdiv and Haskovo, which have a highly developed industrial base.

There is no perfect design for the distribution of regions, each has its own advantages and disadvantages, Donchev stressed, adding that with this step, the long-standing injustice towards the residents and businesses in the South-West Region will be solved. He added that the deadline for updating the scope of the planning regions is March 31

He pointed out as another significant problem dramatic intra-regional differences, which in his words is most pronounced in the South-West Region. He further explained the disadvantages of bundling Sofia and less developed regions in one planning region. This leads to a number of adverse consequences for all other cities of the planning region, such as the total amount of financing and the total amount of state aid in terms of the required co-financing from the state.

He said that business representatives from Kyustendil Region have been complaining for years about the low intensity of financing of the projects they propose. "Simply put, compared to businesses from other regions of the country, they have to secure much more for own financing for EU-backed projects [because they are in the same region with Sofia and it raises the level of economic development and hence the requirement for own financing for projects]," Donchev said. He added that companies from Blagoevgrad and Pernik regions also face this problem.

"If you look at data on GDP per capita and compare the capital with Kyustendil, the difference is probably four or five times, which is extreme within the framework of one planning region," Donchev pointed out.