site.btaNAMRB Executive Director for BTA: Budget 2023 Only Allows Municipalities to Survive

Municipalities will receive enough funds to survive until the end of the year in Budget 2023, but not enough for development. We are now looking forward to the negotiations on Budget 2024, which we hope will be a development budget, said Silvia Georgieva, Executive Director of the National Association of the Municipalities in Republic of Bulgaria (NAMRB), in an interview with BTA.

The state budget for 2023 was adopted on first reading by the National Assembly, and next week a second reading is due in the committee in charge in Parliament. Georgieva explained that a very detailed opinion has been provided to the members of the budget committee to improve the texts in the law that affect municipalities. In her words, the three priority texts for local authorities are not so much about resources as about improving the provisions.

"The most important thing for us, if the MPs consider it reasonable, is to allow the accumulated transitional balances in the accounts of the municipalities from 2022 in terms of activities delegated by the state, not to be taken away from the municipalities at the end of this year, but to remain for us to use them in 2024," she said.