Borislav Borisov: "Ten neighbourhood councils to involve citizens in local decision making"

For the city of Varna, an important Bulgarian Black Sea port, European Local Democracy Week has been the occasion for a major mobilisation of contacts between local elected members and the ordinary public. As a new democracy, explains Borislav Borisov, the city's Deputy Mayor, we believe that direct and representative democracy is a sublime form of government. He goes on to describe a whole series of activities that took place during European week, from 15 to 20 September.

Borislav Borisov was awarded with the Congress medal for Varna, ELDW Pilot City

Interview, 22.10.2008

Question: Varna is one the cities that is most actively celebrating this year's European Local Democracy Week. You are clearly highly committed to this venture but how did it come about?

Borislav Borisov:The Week is a perfect reflection of what we have been working on for several years now, which is to involve citizens as closely as possible in municipal decision making. Varna has nearly 500 000 inhabitants and is divided into five districts, each run by its own locally elected mayor. Six years ago it established 10 neighbourhood councils, with voluntary participation, concerned with purely local issues. They are made up of hundreds of citizens, who may or may not be experts in the highly varied subjects under consideration, which include town planning, the environment, education and sport. The debates and views of these councils are then taken into account by elected members in their decision-making process. This helps us to deal with many practical problems. At the moment, for example, the councils are discussing the future urban development of the city.

Question: Apart from promoting these councils, what else are you doing to foster good governance.

Borislav Borisov:We have been organising open days for several years now as a means of consulting citizens and informing them of municipal services and achievements. Local democracy week has been an opportunity for us to step up these operations and organise specific debates. These include a forum on access to social services for disabled persons, a conference on humanism and pragmatism in twenty-first century education and a special municipal council session on youth activities and sport. Local elected members and officials have also visited junior and senior schools in the city and I myself have debated with students the likely consequences of the current financial crisis. We have also offered a number of more recreational type activities such as role playing games on the theme of "mayor for a day".

Question: Varna is a member city of the Strasbourg Club, which aims to promote both local democracy and the European ideal at local authority level. How can Europe become a reality at local level?

Borislav Borisov:We have come to Strasbourg to present our ideas on governance and to learn from others as part of a genuine pooling of European experience. In Varna, Europe is becoming an everyday reality, for example through debates in schools and colleges on the European Union and the Council of Europe, and on the rights that Europe gives us as citizens. European week is therefore an ideal occasion for us to affirm our commitment to a Europe that is meaningful and close to its citizens.