Standalone Sofia: Bulgaria decides on a new NUTS 2 regional division (map)

The Bulgarian National Statistical Institute (NSI) will begin negotiations with the European statistical office Eurostat on the rezoning of the country’s territorial statistical units.

During today's government meeting, the NSI received a mandate for negotiations aimed at a new regional division at the NUTS 2 level. This would place the capital, Sofia, as a separate statistical area.

What are NUTS?

The European Union (EU) common classification of territorial units for statistics (NUTS) is used to designate the regions of the member states. NUTS divides each country into 3 levels:

• NUTS 1: large socio-economic areas
• NUTS 2: base areas (for regional policies)
• NUTS 3: small areas (for specific assessments)

As early as 2000, the NUTS 2 level distinguished six regions in Bulgaria - Southwestern, Southcentral, Southeastern, Northeastern, Northcentral and Northwestern. Subsequently, they were amended a bit in 2007 due to changes in Eurostat requirements, according to which a region must have a minimum of 800,000 and a maximum of 3 million inhabitants.

What does the new NUTS zoning of Bulgaria entail?

As Economic.bg wrote some time ago, the capital city has long distorted statistics due to its population and the size of its economy, so debates about changing the regions began as early as 2018.

The change is necessary because the Northwestern and North Central regions do not meet Eurostat's requirements for a minimum population size in the regions for statistical purposes - 800,000 people," the press service of the Council of Ministers stated.

It added that the amendment would not lead to any impact on the administrative-territorial structure of the country but instead will lead to better implementation of regional policy.

The division of the country into certain regions is not only important for statistics, but also for access to European funds. The percentage of European funding under the various programs, part of the EU's cohesion policy, depends on the economic and demographic indicators of each region.

What option will the NSI present for new regions of the country?

The proposed new scope of Level 2 regions includes four regions, as follows:

• Northern: including the provinces of Vidin, Montana, Vratsa, Lovech, Pleven, Gabrovo, Veliko Tarnovo, Targovishte, Ruse, Razgrad and Silistra;
• Eastern: including the provinces of Dobrich, Varna, Shumen, Burgas, Sliven and Yambol;
• Southern, including the provinces of Sofia, Pernik, Kyustendil, Blagoevgrad, Pazardzhik, Smolyan, Plovdiv, Stara Zagora, Haskovo, Kardzhali;
• Capital, including Sofia (Sofia Municipality)

The specific option for a new scope of level 2 regions, which will be presented by the NSI, has been prioritized among a total of three proposals by the Interdepartmental Working Group, after analyzing the results of public discussions and coordination procedures," stated the Bulgarian cabinet's press center.

Translated by Tzvetozar Vincent Iolov