[Forthcoming]

On the 1 July 2008 in Sofia will take place the official launch of the EEA Financial Mechanism - NGO Fund. The Fund will be managed in Bulgaria by the Foundation for Local Government Reform (FLGR) in partnership with the Bulgarian Environmental Partnership Foundation (EkoObshtnost).

NGO Fund will support the strengthening of the non-governmental, non-profit organizations as an active partner in the public debate and the involvement of NGOs in the priority areas as follows:

1. Protection of the environment and sustainable development, inter alia through biodiversity;
2. Social service delivery and development, mainly health and childcare;
3. Development of the civil society and human rights protection, especially in the filed of human trafficking.

>> from Norwegian side: H.E. Tove Skarstein, Norwegian Ambassador to Bulgaria, Ms. Heidi Sorensen, State Secretary, Ministry of the Environment and International Development of the Kingdom of Norway, and Mr. Sturla J. Stalsett, Secretary General, Church City Mission Oslo.



>> from Bulgarian side: Deputy Minister of Finance Mr. Lyubomir Datzov, Mr. Zdravko Sechkov, Acting Director, FLGR, Ms. Irena Boneva, Manager of the Programme, FLGR, Ms. Dessislava Tencheva, Coordinator of the Programme, FLGR, and Ms. Lubomira Kolcheva, Director, Bulgarian Environmental Partnership Foundation (EkoObshtnost).

At the end of July the First Call for projects will be opened and detailed information will be published on the site of FLGR and in the e-Weekly of FLGR.

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[Results of the Online Contest] The results of the online contest for Practice - Choice of the Public Award as part of the National contest for best youth project 2007 were announced. The National Contest was carried out under the National Programme "Youth Information-Consultative Centers" 2007 - 2010 of the State Agency for Youth and Sports by Center for Informal Education - Sofia and partnering organizations, among them - FLGR. The tool for the online contest used was the FLGR website and its section "Innovative Practices".

For the nominated 11 projects in the period of 14 days voted 4345 visitors of the webpage and the results are as follows:

>> 1st place with 1639 votes won the project "Youth Belgian-Bulgarian Culture Festival 3 2 1 - 3 days, 2 cultures, 1 place", carried out by Youth Initiative for the Srednogorie, town of Pirdop.

>> 2nd place went to "Applying the acquis communautaire at regional and local level", realised by Eco-Club of the Nature and Mathematics Secondary School in the town of Montana with 1616 votes.

>> The 874 votes for the International Youth Philanthropy Conference, carried out by the Bridges over Tundzha Foundation from the town of Yambol won the young people the third place in the contest.

At a National Conference on 27 June 2008 in Sofia the awards will be officially presented to the winners.

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[Analytical Report] FLGR published in Bulgarian its Analytical Report on the NGOs, working in the field of local development, good governance, civil rights and social environment in the South Central Planning Region, region Stara Zagora incl.

The goal of the survey was to analyse the NGOs from South Central Planning Region, region Stara Zagora incl., working in the field of local development, good governance, civil rights and social environment from the view point of their present state, capacity for sustainable development and partnership with public administrations.

The results of the survey will serve as a basis for elaborating training programmes for strengthening the capacity of the civil society structures in the South Central Planning Region to formulate and carry out policies in partnership with local governments.

As the analysis gives current picture of the condition of the NGO sector in South Central Planning Region, it has the goal to facilitate public and civic institutions in their initiatives for improvement of the status and competitiveness of the third sector in Bulgaria.

The Survey was carried out in the period March - April 2008.

The survey was carried out under Operational Programme "Administrative Capacity", co-financed by European Social Fund (ESF).

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[Professional Qualification] On the 12 and 13 of June 2008 FLGR and Utilities Services held a training course on "Project development and management in the field of waste waters treatment". Twelve participants - municipal experts and representatives of companies - were practically oriented in the know-how of proposal writing. At the end of the course the participants were awarded certificates. The next round of trainings in the field of utility services will be held in September 2008.

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[Annual Meeting] On the 13 and 14 of June 2008 in Thessaloniki, Greece, an Annual Meeting was held, organised by the International Institute of Administrative Sciences - IISA -Branch Greece. The topic of the meeting was "Consultation Structures and Processes: increasing the transparency of the public administration work and acquiring higher quality of services provided".

In the meeting participated three representatives from Bulgaria: Mr. Zdravko Sechkov, Acting Director, FLGR, Ms. Nikoleta Efremova, Training Officer, FLGR, and Ms. Rosalina Laskova, Chief expert, Programmes and Projects management Department, Ministry of State Administration and Administrative Reform. The presented the Bulgarian experience.

The Forum was attended by representatives of ministries and other organisations working in the field of public administration from 15 countries from Central and Eastern Europe.

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[Training for Municipal Councillors] In the framework of тhe Improving Bulgarian Local Government Integrity Project, supported by the MATRA Programme of the Dutch Government, training for municipal councillors from 9 municipalities was held on 21 and 22 of June 2008 in Sofia.

Some 50 participants discussed the possibilities given by the national legislation and the local regulations in public procurement, control over the EU funds utilisation and the rules for carrying out public-private partnerships.

Mayor of Bergen op Zoom, The Netherlands, Dhr J.M.M Polman was at the training in Sofia and shared his experience on specific cases with his colleagues from Bulgaria.

The Bulgarian Local Government Integrity project is been carried out in Bulgaria in the period May 2007 - April 2009 by a Consortium of 4 NGOs: NGO Links, Bulgaria, Center for Liberal Strategies, Bulgaria, Foundation for Local Government Reform, Bulgaria, and transForma, Romania.

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[FLGR Started its Blog]

On 11 June 2008 started the Blog of FLGR - you can find it only in Bulgarian - at wp.flgr.bg Blog serves as a high-speed information channel to the municipalities, NGOs and FLGR partners.

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[Third Innovative Practices Team Meeting] On the 23 June 2008 at the FLGR office was held the third Innovative Practices Team Meeting. The team was established within the "NGOs - Reliable Partners for Development" FLGR project which is funded under the Administrative Capacity Operational Programme.

The purpose of the team is to develop feasible models for partnership between NGOs and public administration in formulation and implementation of local policies. The team consists of 10 members who are well-known leaders in the field of citizen participation.

During the meeting a model of partnership between local governments and NGOs at local level in the field of environment protection was discussed. The model will be published in a week-time on the FLGR web site in Bulgarian.

Next meeting of the Innovative Practices Team will take place on 17 September 2008.

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[Interesting Bulgarian Web Places]

Ethnographic museum Etar - Gabrovo

Gallery - Museum Philippopolis - at Architecture reserve Old Plovdiv

Boyana Church
The Boyana Church, in the eponymous Sofia suburb at the foot of Mt. Vitosha, is one of the few complete and perfectly preserved mediaeval monuments testifying to the significant contribution of Bulgarian monumental painting to European culture in the Middle Ages.

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