PROGRAMME BG 11
"CAPACITY-BUILDING AND INSTITUTIONAL COOPERATION"

SIXTH COOPERATION COMITTEE UNDER BG 11

Sofia, March 30, 2016 .: Today, at the Blue Hall of the Council of Ministers was held the Sixth Cooperation Committee under BG11 Programme "Capacity-building and institutional cooperation" funded by the Norwegian Financial Mechanism 2009-2014.

During the meeting, the completion of the activities and results achieved on both predefined projects of the program was reported. The Beneficiary, National Association of Municipalities in Republic of Bulgaria, presented the most significant achievements of project: creation of a Inter-municipal cooperation Fund, involving 66 municipalities, building the Municipal finance e-platform, developed for local authorities and NAMB, training for "Good Finance Governance" for financial experts from the municipalities and redevelopment of the new training center for local and central authorities in Gabrovo, with an access for people with disabilities.

On the other hand, the beneficiary DG "Territorial Cooperation Management" at the Ministry of Regional Development, presented the newly established data center - information and analysis cbc web site providing free data and metadata on business, social and demographic statistics and environment statistics for Bulgaria, Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey - www. patchworkbalkan.org, and it's platform for distance learning. Two courses for journalists, focused on work with the database and the site of the project "Bulgarian border dialogue" - www.bbdstats.org, was also presented.

The Committee continued discussions on topics, related to the process of completion of the projects. They are expected to be concluded by the end of April and the closure of the program is scheduled for the end of April next year. In this regard, it became clear that the implemented savings, of programme, could be transferred and used by the bilateral fund, which provides activities for exchange of good practices between beneficiaries and partners. Discussed was the necessity of organizing complementary activities by the program operator, as well as the plans for joint initiatives next year. The closing event of the program, which is expected to be organized in the beginning of 2017, after completion of all program activities, was also a topic of the conversations.

Participants in the meeting were the head of the program operator Mrs. Irena Parvanova and representatives from the Operational Programme "Technical Assistance", Norwegian partners - Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities and the Norwegian Barents Secretariat, representatives of beneficiaries, representatives of the Embassy of Norway in Sofia headed by Ms. Carina Ekornes, First Secretary / Deputy head of mission, representatives of the National Coordination unit of the Council of Ministers and the Directorate "National Fund" in the Finance Ministry.