Bulgaria should be divided into four planning regions, and part of the collected taxes and fees should remain in the regions and municipalities.
The proposal is from scientists and experts, and the goal is to overcome the inequalities between the capital and small settlements, reports bTV.
According to them, the division into the Northern, Eastern, Southern and Capital planning regions, which would also include Pernik, would prevent the so-called “demographic deserts“ in the country.
“A significant part of the taxes that come in should not go to the central budget, but directly to the regions, and in this way we are fighting this disproportionate development of Sofia and the rest of Bulgaria“, explained Prof. Vladimir Chukov, Chairman of the NGO “Region“.
Prof. Chukov hopes that this proposal will be put forward for debate and become one of the priorities of the parliament and the government after our accession to Schengen and the eurozone.
The division of the country into certain regions is not only important for statistics, but also for access to European funds. The percentage of European funding under the various programs, part of the EU's cohesion policy, depends on the economic and demographic indicators of each region.