In his welcoming speech, H.E. Eric Lebédel thanked the attending Vice-Ministers of Environment and Water and of Regional Development - Atanaska Nikolova and Denitsa Nikolova for the fruitful cooperation and support by both ministries, as well as the participants in the competition for their daily commitment in the provision of better services to the citizens. “The ECOOBSHTINA competition allows for those Bulgarian municipalities to be recognized which have developed successful solutions in the area of domestic waste management, water management, sustainable mobility and energy efficiency”, he said during the ceremony. At the end of his solemn speech, he marked the third birthday of ECOOBSHTINA and added: “We continue to think how that competition could be developed further. For 2019 we have envisaged the existence of one more category, which will recognize civil initiatives that develop further educational projects related to sustainable development and environmental protection.” In this year’s competition 32 municipalities participated, which submitted 35 projects in the five categories: “Sustainable Water Management”, “Sustainable Waste Management”, “Energy Efficiency of Housing” and “Sustainable Mobility”, and the newly-introduced in 2018 category – “Sustainable Management of Public Spaces”.
Stanislav Stanev – O&M Director at Sofiyska Voda AD, part of Veolia, participated in the ceremony on the awarding of the prizes, and together with H.E. Eric Lebédel awarded the prizes in the categories: “Sustainable Water Management” – Municipality of Etropole (in the category small municipalities over 10,000 p.e.); the prizes for sustainable development of the domestic waste management went to the Municipality of Plovdiv (over 40,000 p.e.) and Pavlikeni (under 40,000 p.e.).