The Sofia Municipality has ensured continuity of garbage collection services in six more metropolitan areas, falling into Zone 2 ("Pancharevo", "Iskar", "Kremikovtsi") and Zone 4 ("Ilinden", "Nadezhda" and "Serdika"), whose contracts expire today, the press center of the Sofia Municipality reports. With these new decisions, Zone 3 ("Poduyane", "Slatina" and "Izgrev") remains the only one where service will continue to be provided in a crisis organization mode.
The Mayor of Sofia Vasil Terziev commented on the situation as follows: "The battle to save Sofia residents several hundred million leva is not easy at all. It goes through serious pressure, legal procedures and temporary difficulties. Yes, there is and will be inconvenience - we have always been open to this. This is the price of not accepting unfavorable conditions and not burdening people with higher fees. For the districts "Lyulin" and "Krasno Selo", "Poduyane", "Slatina" and "Izgrev" I and my team have made a commitment – to do everything possible to stabilize the regime and normalize the service by the end of the month."
With regard to Zone 2 ("Pancharevo", "Iskar", "Kremikovtzi"), the Sofia Municipality decided to extend the contract with the current contractor by signing an annex and indexing the price by 19%, i.e. to 209 BGN per ton.
For Zone 4 ("Ilinden", "Nadezhda" and "Serdika"), the service has been temporarily assigned to the companies serving the border regions - Zone 7 and Zone 5, at unit prices of 209 BGN and 175 BGN per ton, respectively. The Supreme Administrative Court is expected to rule on the preliminary execution of the contract with the contractor selected by the Sofia Municipality for this zone by January 12.
By providing the service in Zones 2 and 4, the Municipality has guaranteed cleanliness in a total of 6 out of the 7 zones whose contracts expired in the last few months. Zone 3 remains the only one in which waste collection will continue to be carried out with municipal capacity - by the OP SPTO in crisis mode. Winter maintenance there will also be provided - through additional assignment within the framework of the contracts of the contractors serving the border areas.
Regarding Zone 6 (the districts of "Lyulin", "Krasna Polyana" and "Krasno Selo"), the Municipality recalls that as of January 1, 2026, a long-term contract with the municipal company "Sofekostroy" has been in force, which assigns the implementation of the full scope of cleanliness activities in these areas.
The Sofia Municipality recalls that in most zones, legal procedures are underway, challenging the Municipality's decisions to terminate the tenders or extend the contracts. For Zones 1 and 7, the Municipality terminated the procedure launched in June due to a lack of real competition, and the subsequent complaints of the participants were rejected by the Commission for the Protection of Competition, which confirmed the decisions of the Municipality.
In parallel with the temporary decisions, the Sofia Municipality continues to work to develop and expand the municipal capacity in order to balance the dependence and ensure competition for external contractors. Another main priority is the discrepancy in the terms of the contracts, in order to prevent a crisis caused by their simultaneous expiration in the future, as well as the preparation of new permanent contracts with higher requirements for quality, accountability and control.