Projets spécifiques en Bulgarie

Developing fiscal decentralisation and improving local financial management in Bulgaria

 What is the goal?

The project aims to support increasing financial autonomy of Bulgarian municipalities in line with good European practice and standards by assisting the Bulgarian authorities to:

• Improve the legal, financial, and strategic framework for fiscal decentralisation and increase the level of own revenues of municipalities;
• Develop the competences of local officials to apply relevant benchmarks and measure performance.

 Who benefits from the project? 

• Public authorities such as the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works; Ministry of Finance;
• Bulgarian municipalities, their staff and institutional structures;
• Partners and other stakeholders: Council for Decentralisation of State Governance of the Council of Ministers; National Platform of Partners for Good Democratic Governance at Local Level;
• Relevant organisations or institutions in Bulgaria that have particular expertise and experience in the topics of the project and access to a relevant network of national experts;
• Bulgarian citizens and society at large.

 How did the project work?

• Through regular exchanges and close coordination with central and local authorities, as well as the civil society to identify practical challenges and develop tailor-made solutions;
• Intergovernmental cooperation through a peer review involving experts and peers from Armenia, Finland, Ireland, Italy and Romania
• International support in developing legislative and policy advice with public consultations
• By developing tailored training curricula (based on the Training Needs Analysis) designed to respond to the needs of local authorities and contribute to developing effective, accountable and transparent institutions at local level
• Through trainings to increase the capacity of local officials in financial management, with a focus on Local Financial benchmarking and Participatory Budgeting.

 Budget and duration

• This project is co-funded by the European Union via the Technical Support Instrument, and implemented by the Council of Europe, in cooperation with the European Commission.
• The total budget of the project is 611 112 EUR
• The project ran from 15 June 2022 to 30 June 2024

More information about the cooperation between EU/EC DG REFORM and the Council of Europe is available from the Directorate of Programme Co-ordination.

Project results 

Additional ressources

Testimonials by project partners:

Ministry of Regional Development and Public Work, the National Association of Municipalities, Citizen Participation Forum and Foundation for Local Government Reform