The second monitoring committee of the “Environment” Program 2021-2027 approved methodologies and evaluation criteria for procedures that will be announced in 2023 in the priorities “Waste”, “Biological diversity”, and “Risk and climate change”. The total budget is around 290 million BGN, aimed at important topics such as waste management, improving the protection conditions in priority habitats, ensuring capacity to fight forest fires.

The Managing Body of the 2021-2027 Program “Environment” will provide methodological support to the municipalities through the upcoming procedure “Models for optimizing the process of municipal waste management in Bulgaria”. The direct beneficiary will be the National Association of Municipalities in the Republic of Bulgaria, which has considerable experience in assisting municipalities in fulfilling their assigned commitments, including on projects co-financed with EU funds.

“I hope that together with our partner, in the person of the National Association, we will achieve optimization of the municipal waste management process, with a common model and strategic approach”, emphasized the head of the Managing Body of the 2021-2027 Program “Environment” Ms. Galina Simeonova.

As a result of the implementation of the project, it is expected to improve the waste management systems at the municipal level, as well as the organizational structures for managing the relevant activities within municipalities. The goal is to ensure a smooth transition to calculating the amount of the “household waste” fee on the basis of quantity as the lead component and the application of the “polluter pays” principle, as well as to increase awareness among citizens and businesses about waste management.

The members of the Monitoring Committee approved the methodologies and evaluation criteria for 3 procedures on improving environmental protection conditions of priority habitats and for the procedure “Reclamation of regional landfills/cells of regional landfills for household waste”, which will be announced by May 2023.

170 million BGN will be invested in reducing the risk of fires, natural disasters, and damage from extreme natural phenomena. The financial support will be provided to the General Directorate “Fire Safety and Civil Protection” at the Ministry of the Interior. The specific objective of the procedure is to reduce the risk of forest fires by improving the equipment of the teams involved in fire-fighting activities.

Agnes Monfre, Head of the Department “Bulgaria, Hungary and Slovenia” at the General Directorate “Regional and Urban Policy” of the EC drew attention to the fact that 2023 is a special year because, on the one hand, we are bringing the Operational Program “Environment 2014- 2020” to completion, while at the same time we start the third year of the 2021-2027 program period.”