Veolia has been supporting the initiative since its very beginning and contributing actively to the information exchange and the cooperation between Bulgarian and French municipalities interested in innovations and technologies protecting the environment.
The host of the event in the French Cultural Institute was H.E. Éric Lebédel, Ambassador of France in Bulgaria. “During the ONE PLANET SUMMIT, which took place on December 12 in Paris, the President of France Emmanuel Macron emphasized the key role of the separate countries, but also that of the municipalities and enterprises in combatting climatic changes. ECOMUNICIPALITY is a competition which recognizes Bulgarian municipalities that strive to improve the quality of life for their citizens through environmental measures and at the same time it is a platform for cooperation between the Bulgarian and French public authorities, associations and enterprises in the area of the sustainable city,” said H.E. Éric Lebédel on the occasion of the third year’s initiative. The Vice Minister of Environment and Water Atanaska Nikolova stressed that the competition was a platform for recognizing the municipalities which increased the quality of the life of the citizens. The Vice Minister of Regional Development Valentin Yovev expressed his content with the valuable initiative and announced that this year’s competition, third one in a row, was turning ECOMUNICIPALITY into tradition. At the press conference on the opening of the competition Veolia – Bulgaria was represented by Arnaud Valleteau, Deputy Country Director of Veolia for Bulgaria and Executive Director of Sofiyska Voda AD.
The categories that were presented in the previous ECOMUNICIPALITY competitions are the pillars of modern urban development: “Sustainable Water Management”, “Sustainable Waste Management”, “Sustainable Mobility”, “Energy Efficiency in Buildings”. In 2018 they are complemented by the category “Sustainable Management of Public Spaces”, which will recognize the policies of the municipalities in Bulgaria towards the development of public spaces. An important change this year is that, apart from the municipalities which have excelled with the best practices in their sustainable development, also civil organizations and NGO’s will take part in the contest in the category “Sports and Civil Society”.
In the course of the initiative seminars will be conducted on the topics of the five categories, where French experts will present the experience of the municipalities in France. The first seminar with topic “Sustainable Water Management” will take place on April 17, 2018, and “Sustainable Waste Management” – on April 24, 2018. The applying municipalities will compete for the ECOMUNICIPALITY 2018 award and a three-day visit to France for two representatives of the winning municipality. Similar to the previous competitions, there will be two winners in each category – one from a small and one from a big municipality.
