Regional mayors involved in Stara Planina discussion

A meeting concerning Euroregion Stara Planina took place in Pirot, Serbia on May 18, at which regional mayors decided to apply for membership of the Association of European Border Regions, which joins some 160 border regions across the continent. The mayors also decided to ask the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to facilitate the process of granting Bulgarian visas to Serbian members of the Euroregion.

A Stara Planina logo will be designed in the coming weeks, and members of the working groups will be selected for the following areas of transboundary cooperation: environment-friendly tourism, agriculture, culture, environment and infrastructure. The Euroregion was established in 2006 with the aim of fostering transboundary cooperation between the Serbian border municipalities of Dimitrovgrad, Knjazevac, Pirot and Zajecar and Bulgaria's Belogradchik, Berkovitza, Chiprovtzi, Chuprene, Georgi Damjanovo, Godech and Vurshtets. Another aim is to assist the two governments in the planning and execution of cooperation and regional development policies.

The Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe (REC), which has supported transboundary cooperation in the West Stara Planina Mountain region since 2002, is acting as temporary secretariat of Euroregion Stara Planina and supporting its institutionalisation.