Policies for regional development in Bulgaria - evolution, challenges, directions for improvement

Stela Todorova

Abstract: Development in the 70s and 80s of the last century was characterized by territorial disparities formed progressively as a result of the high degree of industrialization of the different regions and the subsequent wave of migration from the countryside to cities and the so-called industrial centers and 27‘s former district towns. After 1980 the regional development policy is oriented to direct state intervention aimed primarily at stimulating the development of the peripheral border regions. Without being played down the positive results of a mechanism for, there are significant problems and deficits. Problematic aspects of the current macroeconomic policy led to adverse changes in the settlement structure, resulting in a number of regions are beginning to experience serious economic and social problems that have not yet found appropriate solutions. The purpose of this study is to analyze the stages in the development of regional policy in Bulgaria, to identify problems at this stage and give suggestions for improvement of the legal framework for regional development and related laws in the context of Bulgaria’s membership in the EU. In this direction can pose a number of questions related to search for opportunities to expand decentralization and subsidiarity in the management of regional development, and increasingly engaging regional level with policies for regional development to compensate for the lack of “regionalization” and commitment national strategies and programs, including co-financed from EU funds, the needs and potential of regional and local communities in the territory. Certainly the subject of continuous improvement should be legislation to identify relationships between strategies and regional development plans and programming documents (OPs).

Keywords: EU; laws; policy; regional development; regulatory framework

Date published: 2017-10-03