Bulgarian School of Politics “Dimitry Panitza” and the Association of Bulgarian Cities and Regions completed the implementation of the project ” “Increasing civic participation in local energy efficiency policies and activities in Rila municipality”

The project “Increasing civic participation in local energy efficiency policies and activities in Rila municipality” officially ended with the holding of a final press conference on 26.07.2023 in the city of Rila. The results of the project were presented to the local community by Mr. Ergin Ermin, Executive Director of BCRA.

The overall objective of the project was to increase citizen participation in the formation, implementation and monitoring of the implementation of local policies on energy efficiency in the municipality of Rila. As part of the project activities, the state of local policies in the field of energy efficiency was analyzed in terms of their implementation and the inclusion of citizens in the planning and implementation processes. This includeed analysis and evaluation of two strategic documents from the past programming period (2014-2020) and three current ones, regulating and formulating energy policy at the level of Rila Municipality. Particular attention was paid to the implemented and envisaged opportunities for involvement and participation of all stakeholders in the process of planning, implementation and control of energy efficiency measures. Based on the information from these analyzes, recommendations were developed for improving the strategic documents of the Municipality of Rila in order to achieve effective civic participation in their implementation.

The project is financed by the Operational Program “Good Governance” (OPGG), co-financed by the European Social Fund of the European Union.