December 03, 2023
The 4th consecutive edition of the "New Energy Mix" - Social dialogue on public policies and the implementation of the Territorial Plans for a just transition forum was held on the 29th November 2023 in Stara Zagora, Bulgaria. Question and Answer Time: What's the Future of the Coal Region? What is the future of the environment, people and regions in transition? These and many more questions were discussed in detail during the meeting. Ministries were invited.
Working Panel #1: Territorial plans for a just transition are only one of the many options available to finance projects for the transformation of the regional economy to a cleaner and more competitive one. They can and should be supplemented both by EU Programs in Bulgaria and by the national budget and EU Programs at the international level. But for all this, several more factors are needed: a vision at the national level, in accordance with local interests and conditions, cooperation between local and national authorities, cooperation between the responsible institutions, changes in the legislative framework. These were the topics in the first working panel of the Social Dialogue for Public Policies: New Energy Mix 2023.
Working Panel #2: SITRANS partners shared experience and ambitions in the transformation management mechanism: The transformation of the regional economy and the search for ways to sustainability is not a solitary pursuit. For years, the SZ REDA team has been partnering with institutions and organizations from regions in transition in the EU in this direction. In this panel, we brought together our partners from SITRANS, a project that brings together transition regions from Bulgaria, Greece, Italy and Poland, to share what governance mechanisms for the transition to a carbon-neutral economy are being implemented more or less successfully. In all these regions Territorial Just Transition Plans have already been approved. And in some of these regions Territorial plans for a just transition are already in the implementation stage. The moderator - Prof. Yanis Bakuros has an enviable long-term experience and was able to extract the most important from the panelists.
Working Panel #3: Social dialogue: What is the future of the coal region?
In this panel trade unions, the Economic and Social Council and the Youth, discussed what the future holds for the coal region. We heard the different points of view and "put together" a good plan that can carry us through the transition together. The moderator - Yasen Georgiev has very recent experience of working with young people from municipalities in transition, and in addition to moderating, he also participated as a panelist.
Working Panel #4: Experience of EU regions in the implementation of Territorial Just Transition Plans (JTSPs) We continued the theme from Panel 2 with more practices and lessons learned from more transition regions in the EU, which are often given to us as examples: Poland, where the implementation of an innovative technology for the production of energy from waste is starting as a pilot. The resources that can be used again are extracted from them. The rest is used for energy using the CHP equipment. Slovenia, where one of the regions is already implementing the first part of its project for efficient and carbon-neutral heating, worth 20 million euros. In this regard, we also opened the door to JUSTEM - a project implemented by partner organizations, from which we also heard about energy poverty as a phenomenon that we have to deal with here as well. Belgium - 30 years of successful transition to a sustainable regional economy. Moderator - Kaloyan Staykov has the training and experience to lead the panelists, focusing on the most important in these projects.
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