20 Feb 2025
Three Deputy Mayors of the Municipalities of Stara Zagora, Galabovo and Radnevo spoke on Friday, February 14, 2025, with the envoys of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on topics related to regional development, investment, productivity and the green transition.
The representatives of the local authorities from the region were the Deputy Mayors of Stara Zagora Radostin Tanev (“Transport, Ecology, Investment and Green Transition”), of Galabovo Eng. Plamen Barakov and of Radnevo Temenuzhka Sotirova (“Economy, Public Procurement, Strategic Planning and Education”). The Municipality of Stara Zagora was also represented by the Director of the Directorate “European Programs and Protocol” Georgi Simeonov and the Head of the department “Investment, Energy Efficiency and Green Transition” Rositsa Raykova.
The meeting in Stara Zagora with part of the OECD team was initiated by the organization, which Bulgaria is scheduled to join in 2026. The goal of the OECD structural mission to Bulgaria is to prepare an economic review for 2025, and this is done through organized meetings with a wide range of Bulgarian institutions to discuss leading topics that will be included in the review.
Given the fact that Stara Zagora is an industrial center with key sectors such as energy, mechanical engineering and agriculture, which has a qualified workforce and the local administration actively encourages investments through incentives, European funding and favorable conditions for business, innovation and sustainable development, our city was determined to be suitable for a visit by the OECD team as part of the structural mission.
"Our region is going through a transition that requires a lot of joint work with a significant, unified goal - preserving the workforce here in the region, especially young people, is a priority task for the municipal leadership," formulated the Deputy Mayor of Stara Zagora Municipality Radostin Tanev. "This has required us, in Stara Zagora, to develop a strategy for the economic development of the region. One of the central themes in it is aimed at the development of entrepreneurship and innovation," Mr. Tanev also announced.
According to him, real analyses reveal that the Maritsa-Iztok complex is a major driver of economic development in the region. "The main challenge before us remains how to retrain people and direct them to new businesses. The mining and energy complex has highly specialized personnel, e.g. the profession of power engineer, who will be difficult to retrain and be able to offer them work at an adequate level and pay," expressed the main concerns of the city government, Radostin Tanev.
As an alternative, which the local government is actively working on, he highlighted the creation of industrial zones in several stages. In Galabovo, they already have land designated as an industrial zone, and in Radnevo, they have a private zone.
A common opinion, around which the three deputy mayors united, is that in none of the three municipalities is there an investor who came thanks to the efforts of the state. "We are alone in this process. I believe that if we have strong regions, we will also have a strong state," expressed the general opinion Radostin Tanev.
As another serious problem, the deputy mayor of Galabovo Plamen Barakov highlighted the cumbersome procedures for land expropriation and appeal procedures, which further hinder the process.
"Radnevo is the most affected municipality, because nearly 70% of the population is employed in the mining and energy complex," recalled the deputy mayor of Radnevo Temenuzhka Sotirova. "Our biggest difficulty is related to the lack of territory to use for an industrial zone. We think and are working towards the state restoring part of the reclaimed lands to us," she expressed hope.
The deputy mayors were unanimous that the processes of expropriation, change of land status and change of the Master Plan with the possibility of appeal by owners and organizations, hinder the development of the process of just transition and transition to clean energy. And this also negatively affects the revenues of the municipalities.
The meetings with the OECD representatives, accompanied by the Ministry of Finance, continued with discussions with business associations, local companies and representatives of the mining sector. The OECD informed that the prepared report will play a key role in assessing the degree of Bulgaria's readiness for accession. It will include a special section dedicated entirely to the green transition, which emphasizes the importance of the topic in the accession process.
