Fourth Stakeholders meeting in Bulgaria within the Coop4RURALGov project

The Fourth stakeholders meeting within the Coop4RuralGov project was organized on 18.10.2024 in city of Pazardzhik, involving more than 20 Bulgarian stakeholders at local, regional, and national level. These were: municipalities from Pazardzhik Province, a national SMEs association, an environmental agency REAP, several educational administrations, NGOs, and representatives of the regional administration of Pazardzhik Province.

A presentation of the Coop4RuralGov project was performed, together with good practices coming from the partner countries. The participants also discussed topics like the challenges related to the policy instrument of improving the capacity of local governments to jointly develop sustainable policies and making regional impact assessment a routine part of the decision-making process of officials as well as for policies, programmes and initiatives approved by legislatures in sparsely populated rural, coastal and mountainous areas were discussed, along with the development and marketing of local resources and the participation of local people in these processes.

The two Bulgarian partners (Association CSEG, and Municipality of Bratsigovo) shared also the main outcomes of the Spanish Interregional Workshop from September, 2024. This was followed by a debate on potential policy improvements of Bulgarian rural policies, as well as a discussion on potential topics of the Bulgarian Coop4RuralGov workshop that will be organized at the beginning of 2025.