PROGRAMME BG 11
"CAPACITY-BUILDING AND INSTITUTIONAL COOPERATION"

Joint Seminar

On February 27, 2013, in Granite Hall of the Council of Ministers was held the First Bilateral Joint seminar under the program BG 11 "Capacity building and institutional cooperation" funded by the Norwegian Financial Mechanism 2009-20014. The event was organized by the programme operator Operational Programme Technical Assistance Directorate at the administration of the Council of Ministers.
The seminar with headline "Opportunities and challenges for Municipalities in Bulgaria, with a focus on cross-border regions" gathered the mayors from the Norwegian municipalities Sør-Varanger and Trysil together with their Bulgarian colleagues from the municipalities Kyustendil, Krumovgrad and Tran. They exchanged experiences on local authorities work, organization, problems and solutions in everyday life and presented their municipalities in front of the guests of the seminar.
The participants were welcomed by the the Deputy Head of Mission of the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Sofia Ms. Dagfrid Hjortholand and Ms. Irena Parvanova - head of the Programme operator.
The Beneficiaries - Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works and the National Association of Municipalities in Bulgaria participated in the seminar representing respectively the Bulgarian regional development, with a special emphasis on the center-periphery relations and Balkan border relations and the opportunities and challenges which the Bulgarian local authorities are facing. The two predefined projects were presented as well. Among the guests of the seminar were also representatives of the National Coordination Unit - "Monitoring of EU Funds"
Program BG 11 "Capacity building and institutional cooperation" aims at strengthening the institutional capacity and human resource development in the Bulgarian public institutions, local and regional authorities through cooperation and knowledge transfer with similar institutions in Norway. The total budget of the programme for the implementation of the two predefined projects is 2,371,765 Euro, of which the contribution of the Norwegian Financial Mechanism is 2,016,000 Euro.