On 12 June 2009, the Bulgarian Ministry of Finance and JASPERS organised a Workshop attended by approximately 30 of the largest Bulgarian Municipalities.

The Workshop focused on projects to be financed by the Operational Programme Environment, Priority Axis 1 “Improvement and Development of Water and Wastewater infrastructure” and Priority Axis 2 “Improvement and development of waste treatment infrastructure”.

The Municipalities had the opportunity to learn about the JASPERS initiative, the assistance it offers, the benefits of using JASPERS and how JASPERS has helped several projects in the project preparation phase. The participants also heard about issues common to sector projects, identified by JASPERS during its work and the lessons learned.

It was very interesting for the audience to listen from several Municipalities, Sofia, Gabrovo and Vratsa, present their projects and their experience working with JASPERS. At the end of the Workshop the participants had the opportunity to meet and discuss projects in their Municipalities with the JASPERS experts as well as representatives from the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Environment.