First Stakeholder group Meeting within the frame of DETOCS Project

August 18, 2023August 22, 2023 CSEG

On Thursday, August 17, 2023, Municipality of Burgas hosted the first stakeholder group meeting within the frame of DETOCS project, co-funded by the Interreg Europe Programme 2021-2027. The technical Bulgarian partner, Regional Energy Agency of Pazardjik – REAP also took part in this first local project event.

Experts from the two Bulgarian partners presented the project in front of the participants – its main objectives, partnership, policies which are tackled by different project partners, and upcoming activities on interregional study visits, exchanges of experience and best practices identification. Representatives of Burgas municipality made a presentation of their newly established Energy Help Desk which will provide consultations on energy topics to citizens and entrepreneurs in Burgas, as well as a “Solar map”, which will contain information on solar energy potentials of buildings’ roofs.

During this session, there were invited speakers from the tourist sector and from the energy sector, who presented also best practices achieved in the tourist sector. The topics of presentations were:

– Sustainable tourism and energy savings in Albena AD, a resort located at the Bulgarian Black Sea;

– Benefits of introducing RES in tourist, commercial and industrial sites (presentation of the steps for building photovoltaic installations and completed sites;

– Energy efficient solutions in public buildings and tourist sites (hotel Bulgaria, city of Burgas)

A discussion was initiated between stakeholders and Bulgarian project partners on how to initiate and implement best practices in the area of tourism based on local and sustainable RES and implementation of energy saving measures. Within this initial stakeholder meeting, the Bulgarian partners also focused on identifying needs, finding solutions, and highlighting the advantages, challenges, and opportunities at local level, i.e. at municipal level in Burgas Municipality in the new programming period from 2021 to 2027.

There were various stakeholders who took part in the event like representatives of public administrations and tourist sector, social workers, representatives of NGOs, energy agencies, and SMEs association. Most of these organizations comprise high-quality experts in specific sectors like tourism, energy, environment protection, entrepreneurship, and policy making.