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Karlovo awarded European Label on Governance Excellence



Bulgaria has first marked outstanding achievement in carrying out the Council of Europe's Strategy for Innovation and Good Governance at local level. Late last week, 13 Bulgarian municipalities received the first official European Label on Governance Excellence. The municipality of Karlovo located at the Valley of Roses in Central Bulgaria is among the Label bearers. In the words of its mayor Naiden Naidenov, although the Bulgarian municipalities rank first in Europe in terms of innovation and more democratic governance at local level, they are lagging behind in some areas, such as decentralization, due to their different legislation. Here is what he says further:

“What needs to happen is a complete process of decentralization. Governing a municipality depends mostly on whether you are able and have got the right to manage your resources. In other words, some of the money going to the central budget should remain in the municipal one sooner or later. At present, we’ve got only a small amount of what is locally earned at our disposal”, Mr Naidenov says.

As a result of a good governance innovation in recent years, Karlovo has come up with a number of large-scale European projects to improve the life of residents. They are to the tune of some 180000 Euro and need to be carried out in the coming years. Three of them are under the EU’s Operational Programme “Technical Assistance”. Another 3 aim to complete the town’s sewer systems and sewage collectors, as well as the construction of water treatment plants in 4 towns in Karlovo District. Karlovo is currently the only municipality in Bulgaria that has got more than one town. It is also working on a project for setting up a construction waste depot. So far, Bulgaria has got only one of the kind in the village of Bozhurishte near Sofia, but Karlovo will be the first to apply a new innovation model. Likewise, some 10 years ago the town pioneered in the construction of a municipal solid waste depot. In addition, the municipality has carried out smaller projects under the EU’s Operational Programme “Regional Development” and other EU programmes. One of Karlovo’s latest initiatives has had to do with the completion of Vasil Levsky Memorial Complex funded by Norway, Iceland and Lichtenstein under the European Economic Area Programme.

For the past 20 years, Karlovo has found a new niche and has got good development perspectives, Mr Naidenov says explicitly.

“Our traditional development path will be the perfume and light industries, as well as the production or roses and essential oil crops- a tradition from the past”, Mr Naidenov continued. “The Bulgarian rose and especially the rose of Karlovo have made Bulgaria popular all over the world. In this sense, I believe that in future the sector will develop, along with agriculture and tourism. Our municipality has an extremely good geographical location. We’ve got a lot of mineral springs and historic landmarks. Having many national heroes coming from the region, we can develop not only cultural heritage tourism, but also many other kinds of tourism. However, there are 2 important things we need to improve- the municipality’s environment and infrastructure. Therefore, in recent years we’ve been working intensely in this direction. I hope that within 5 years we’ll finish the initiated projects with good results and perspectives for the development of tourism”, mayor of Karlovo said in conclusion.