More than 6.6 million euros from the Bulgaria-Türkiye cross-border cooperation program will be injected into projects on energy efficiency and circular economy for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. "It is of utter importance for us at this key moment to support small and medium-sized businesses for a smoother 'green' transition. We have prepared a simplified procedure with a wide selection of activities to be implemented as quickly as possible by SMEs in the region," said deputy minister of regional development and public works Angelina Boneva, who co-chaired the second meeting of the Monitoring Committee of the programme.
Projects shall be in the field of energy efficiency, reduction of greenhouse gases and the transition to a circular and a resource-efficient economy. The maximum grant per beneficiary will be up to 200,000 euros. In terms of energy efficiency, SMEs will be able to apply for energy-saving equipment, energy renovation of production buildings and for the implementation of automatic systems for energy consumption monitoring. Regarding the circular economy, the priority of the call is the promotion of circular production processes through activities related to new technological equipment and development of new business models. The Monitoring Committee of the programme approved the guidelines for applicants. The call for project proposals will be launched in mid-November and there will be an information campaign and a partner search forum.
During the monitoring committee meeting in Yambol, the list of 27 project ideas from the Territorial Strategy was also approved, which go to the next stage of application with an invitation to develop full project proposals. The progress on the implementation of the program from the period 2014-2020 was also reported - more than 26 million euros were paid, which is 94% of the program budget.
Deputy Minister Boneva and the members of the committee visited the reconstructed city bridge of the park in Yambol, financed under the project "Yambol and Edirne - two cities of Tunja" from the program "Bulgaria-Turkey" 2014-2020.
