ON THE WAY TO THE EUROPEAN DANUBE STRATEGY

1. Arch. Belin Mollov, Advisor to the Minister of RDPW European Danube Strategy expert conference, Budapest – 18 March 2010 ON THE WAY TO THE EUROPEAN DANUBE STRATEGY BULGARIAN PERSPECTIVE

2. Danube River is an important factor for the economic, urban, cultural and historical development of Bulgaria Vidin Lom Kozloduy Oryahovo Nikopol Belene Svishtov Ruse Tutrakan Silistra         • 470 km of the longest river in the EU is acting as a frontier of Bulgaria and Romania rather than as a factor for effective integration in the European space and for national and regional development based on Danube’ huge potentials for intensification of agriculture through irrigation, development of industries linked to cheap water-borne transport, navigation, river-port activities, seasonal recreation, and cultural tourism.

3. Bulgarian Danube Region Direct influence: • 2 NUTS 2 regions: North West and North Central regions with the population of 1, 840,330 people or 24% of the total • 8 NUTS 3 regions (districts): Vidin, Montana, Vratza, Pleven, Veliko Turnovo, Ruse, Razgrad, Silistra with the population of 1,554 ,940 or 20% • 22 NUTS4/ LAU1 regions (municipalities) with the population of 570,450 or 7.5%

4. Number of population – NUTS 4 Silistra  Vidin Ruse   Pleven

5. Natural Resources & Biodiversity • Landscape: mostly plain and hilly • The region is relatively poor in terms of ores and minerals and energy resources, as well as of forest resources because of its being situated in the so-called Danubean Plain of Bulgaria. Its main riches are the land resources. • Farmland: 2,026,522 hectares or 73% of the total area, of which arable land forms 1,704,893 ha. • Forests: 501,906 hectares i.e. 18% of the total area.

6. Natural Resources & Biodiversity Protected areas: • 3 nature reserves - strictly protected area, no human activity allowed ( 3651,1 ha), • 1 natural monument - protection of natural features, activity allowed (598,7ha), • 1 managed reserve - activities for conservation purpose allowed (902,1ha), • 3 nature parks - active interaction of humans and nature in sustainable way (55300,1ha), • 4 protected sites- habitat protection and sustainable use of natural products (8207,4ha). • There are 16 existing Special Protection Areas with the total area 454,839 ha. • The protected areas on Ramsar convention i.e. NP Persina, NR Milka, NR Kitka present total area of 21817,6 ha. • There are also two biosphere reserves of the UNESCO Man and Biosphere Programme namely Nature reserve Chuprene, Managed nature reserve Srebarna with the total area of 2341,3 ha.

7. Transport Infrastructure The Bulgarian zone of the Danube Region is traversed by 3 of the total of 5 Pan-European Transport Corridors running through the BG territory : • Corridor no. 4: conducts the international flows between Romania, Bulgaria and Greece via the Bulgarian section Vidin-Sofia-Kulata in the western part of the region, thus ensuring connection between the River Danube and the Aegean Sea. The new bridge is under construction. • Corridor no. 9: conveys the international flows between Romania and Bulgaria via the Bulgarian section Russe-Veliko Turnovo-Stara Zagora-Haskovo-Kardzhali-Podkova-Makaza. Pass in the central part of the region. At the frontier with Romania the Corridor No. 9 operates through the Russe Border-crossing point via the only bridge across the River Danube in Bulgaria. • Corridor no. 7: (the River Danube) In view of the sole existing bridge over the River Danube (city of Rousse), the Corridor No. 7 appears to be not a an opportunity for transborder communications in the region.

8. Pan-European Transport Corridors running through the BG territory  Vidin Ruse   Varna  Sofia  Burgas

9. Transport Infrastructure

10. Ports • The River Danube is the only navigable river in Bulgaria and the development of the river transport is based solely on it. • Port of Russe • Port of Lom • Port of Svishtov • Port of Vidin • Ports of Oryahovo, Somovit, Tutrakan and Silistra service mainly the local trade. • The infrastructure of the ports is well developed, however its capacity is not efficiently loaded, especially in recent years. The transport activities are concentrated mainly in the three major ports – Russe, Lom and Svishtov . No increase of the traffic in the Bulgarian ports has been observed after the commissioning of the Rhein-Main-Danube canal.

11. Economic Structure of the Region • the share of the Gross Added Value in the agrarian sector is very high (18.6 % for the entire region ) • the industrial sector generated 27.3% of the Added Value of the entire region. • the services sector demonstrates the most dynamic development in both the entire region and in the individual districts, generating 54% of the regional Added Value.

12. Universities and collegies Innovations • The existing R&D potential is limited, which does not contribute to development of the innovation capacity of the region. The number of operating entities in the R&D field is very small and concentrated mainly in the district centres. • The localization of the higher educational establishments is illustrated on the map below. Their number is the biggest in Vratsa (5), Pleven, Ruse and Silistra (3 each) and Vidin and Svishtov (2 each). • A trend of building partnerships between the higher educational establishments and the R&D institutes depending on the real market demand has been observed, however on a limited scale, accompanied by a lack of commercialization of the research

13. Urban structure by populationand administrative structure The region comprises 1157 settlements, including 71 cities and 1086 villages. The urban system is characterized by an evenly spacing of small and medium size towns and uneven distribution of the big cities;

14. Spatial Organisation There are three main types of territories in the basic territorial-urbanization structure of Bulgaria: • Strongly urbanized territories in the vicinity of the big cities (Russe and Pleven) ; characterized by developed industrial and service functions, communications and high population density. • strongly urbanized territories of the medium-size cities (Veliko Tarnovo, Vratsa, Vidin, Montana, Silistra, Razgrad and Svishtov) also act as core-centres of organization of the territory, economic growth and development drives where the economic and socio-cultural activity of the region is concentrated. According to statistical data the agglomeration areas in the last years have undergone generally positive economic changes. These regions are characterized by low unemployment rates and above average income and consumer demand levels. • Under-urbanized peripheral territories with low population density and dispersed point location of villages and small cities, mainly with agricultural orientation, at a great distance from the big cities. • Nature areas without human settlements. These territories are spared any substantial human intervention, rich in beautiful nature and outstanding for their rich biodiversity and balance of nature.

15. Agglomeration areas and development access

16. Cultural heritage

17. BG-RO CBC Program 2007-2013 The total population is 5,104,508 inhabitants, of which 3,262,807 (64%) are located in Romania, and 1,841,701 (36%) in Bulgaria. Priority Axis 1: Accessibility - Improved mobility and access to transport, information and communication infrastructure in the cross-border area Priority axis 2: Environment - Sustainable use and protection of natural resources and environment and promotion of efficient risk management in the area Priority axis 3: Economic and Social Development - Economic development and social cohesion by joint identification and enhancement of the area’s comparative advantages

18. ORGANIZATION OF THE WORK • Minister of Regional Development and Public Works is The National coordinator; • An inter-institutional working group was created by the order of the Minister of RDPW in November 2009; • Members of the WG are representatives of Bulgarian governmental bodies at national, regional and local level as well as social partners, national and regional associations of municipalities, civil organizations and some other stakeholders; • Preliminary contributions from all members of the WG were collected in the Secretariat in the MRDPW • Special events (Community forums, public hearings and discussions were organized: • in Vidin on 7 of January 2010 – all members of the Association of Danube Municipalities approved their common position; • in Ruse University on 21 of December 2009 – Public hearing and discussion; • in Belene, Svishtov and Silistra – Community forums; • in Sofia – Meeting Minister of RDPW and Members of BG and EU Parliament; • in Vidin, Lom, Svishtov, Silistra – “Road show” – March 22-25; • in Vidin – Meeting Minister of RDPW and Board of the NAMRB – march 29 • in Sofia – April – Big media event in NPC

19. FIRST DRAFT OF BULGARIAN “NON PAPER” DOCUMENT • The first draft of Bulgarian “non paper” document regarding priorities, policies and actions related to the EU Strategy for the Danube Region is a compilation of preliminary contributions by Bulgarian governmental bodies at national, regional and local level as well as social partners and some other stakeholders, members of the WG; • Analysis and evaluation of national, regional and local planning documents were organised: • National strategy for Regional development; • 2 Regional development plans; • 10 District strategies • All municipal development plans of the Members of Association of Danube Municipalities • Analysis of the implementations of Operational programs – Regional development, Transport, Environment, CBC program BG-RO, Program for SEE, PHARE, ISPA and others…