The Mayor of Sofia, Vasil Terziev, and the Deputy Mayor in charge of “Finance and Health Care”, Ivan Vassilev, were special guests in the second course of the National Program “Governing Skills” 2024, which was held in Borovets between 16 and 19 June. Traditionally, the second course out of a total of four for each trainee class, is dedicated to policies at the local level. In his presentation, the capital’s mayor Terziev focused on the challenges and priorities for him and his team and talked about his personal path from business to politics. The discussion that followed was extremely interesting. The course participants were encouraged by Vasil Terziev to ask all the questions they had. Together with the deputy mayor Ivan Vassilev, they answered dozens of questions and caused applause for their sincere answers and for the human dialogue.
Three other mayors – Kalin Kamenov, Mayor of Vratsa, Trifon Panchev, Mayor of Dryanovo and Radoslav Revanski, Mayor of Belica spoke to the trainees about the municipal budget as a tool for implementing policies. They shared their long-term experience and good practices that they implemented in their municipalities. This was useful both to the course participants and to the mayors themselves, for who their meeting as lecturers at the Bulgarian School of Politics was an opportunity to glean successful ideas. The trainees of Class 2024 had to apply what they had learned about the municipal budget from the three mayors and previously from Zdravko Sechkov, Executive Director of the Foundation for Local Government Reform, when solving an educational task. Divided into four groups and under the guidance of the four moderators, the trainees developed and voted on a municipal budget. It had to be within their statutory powers and take into account various political, administrative and market constraints. The four groups received feedback on their work from Zdravko Sechkov.
The Executive Director of the National Association of Municipalities in Bulgaria, Silvia Georgieva, spoke about the local government, about the challenges and risks for the municipal mandate 2023-2027. Again, about challenges, but demographically by region, was the topic of Assoc. Prof. Georgi Burdarov. He shared possible ways and examples to improve the demographic situation in the country. As usual, the panel “Political Debates – Argumentation, Policies and Policy Debate” caused a lot of emotion and excitement. After the theoretical part given to the trainees by Prof. Dr. Evelina Hristova and Miroslav Mavrov, they prepared in groups and made a simulation of a political debate. Part of building and upgrading the communication skills of Class 2024 was the panel related to presentation skills. The lecturer was Prof. Dr. Desislava Boshnakova. As a homework all trainees have to make a presentation on the topic “Imagine if…”.
For the first time, Dobromir Ivanov, Executive Director of the “Bulgarian Entrepreneurship Association” (BESCO), was invited as a lecturer in the National Program “Governing Skills”. He spoke about advocacy and the opportunity for citizens to participate in the legislative process. What was shared with the course participants was mainly based on examples from BESCO’s experience in this process. The second course of the National Program for Class 2024 was opened by the Deputy Minister of Economy and Industry Nikolay Pavlov.