The Fifth annual meeting of the Bulgarian local authorities starts today in the Black sea resort “Albena”.

Representatives of municipalities, the central authorities, the prime minister, the member of parliament prime minister and ministers as well as French and Austrian partners will take part in the discussions on the problems of the local government.

The meeting will start with the announcement of successful municipal practices – Bulgarian and French – for social services and partnership and for the introduction of health care education for children and students.

The National association of municipalities in Bulgaria organizes a discussion on capacity building in the healthcare and the social sector on a municipal level for HIV prevention among the young people.

The second day will completely be devoted to the municipalities and the European funds. The member of parliament prime minister Meglena Plugchieva and the respective ministers will take part in the discussions on the functional programs “Regional development”, “Environment” and “Rural development”. The achieved so far results as the priorities for the next year will be debated.

The minister of education Daniel Valchev will discuss with the municipal leaders the introduction of delegated budgets and the funding of the secondary education in 2009. Special attention will be paid to the discussion with representatives of the financial ministry of the “Budget 2009” macro framework – priorities and place of municipalities.