There are significant differences between the European Union regions with regard to the income and opportunities. Even before the expansion of the EU, the per capita GDP of ten most dynamic regions was three times greater than the per capita GDP in the ten least developed regions. The affiliation of new countries in 2004 and this year of Bulgaria and Romania, whose standard is lower than the average for the Union increased this imbalance. The GDP per capita in regions like London, Luxembourg, Brussels is respectively 303%, 251%, 248% of the average GDP for the European Union, while for the North-western, North-central and South-central regions in Bulgaria this value is 26% of the average GDP for the EU. In comparison to our regions, only the North-eastern region in Romania has a lower per capita GDP share – 24%.
One of the options for overcoming the differences and achieving cohesion among the regions is the implementation of the regional policy of the European Union. This policy provides opportunities for transfer of resources from the more wealthy regions to the more poor ones. It is an instrument for financial solidarity and a powerful tool for economic integration. The EU has allocated about 308 billion Euro for regional policy in the period 2007-2013, which is slightly over one third of its total budget. These funds are brought to the Member States through the structure and cohesion funds. This year new relieved rules were also adopted fro receiving and usage of means from various funds.
The European Union also defined the main guidelines for cohesion of regions for the period 2007-2013: to make the regions more attractive for living, investment and working; to encourage the innovations, entrepreneurship, to expand the economics of knowledge; to create more and better job opportunities.
Big differences between the standards exist not only between the Member States, but also within them. For Bulgaria, with the exception of the South-western regions, which is more developed as it comprises the city of Sofia, the remaining regions do not differ significantly from each other. Within the regions, however, there are quite big differences between the separate towns, and especially between the towns and villages.
The Regional Development Act provides guidelines on elaboration of strategies and plans on a national, regional and municipal level. Goals and priorities have been set in the National Regional Development Strategy of the Republic of Bulgaria for 2005-2015, regional and municipal strategies. According to the current territorial division and the local government, the main territorial unit that has the largest resources and capacity for utilization of resources from the European funds is the municipality. The mayor, together with the municipal council is the administrative body that could in reality implement pragmatic regional policy, seeking overall resolutions and sustainable results.
The mayors who will be elected only in a couple of months, will be the first ones elected in Bulgaria after the affiliation to the European Union. These will be our European mayors and they should feel and act as such. Their vision, their policy, their capabilities will be measured according to the European criteria. While up to now the main problem identified by the municipalities was the lack of funds, today the main problem is how the funds shall be utilized. The European Commission resolution on funding for Bulgarian regions in 2007 envisages and amount of 300,892,058.00 Euro under Cohesion Objective alone. How shall these funds be utilized is the questions that the electorate should be asking the local government candidates. And the latter should be prepared to answer this question.