Specific objective

To enhance quality of life and appropriate environmental conditions, including risk prevention, as well as the physical aspect of the urban centres and agglomerations as a part of a broader social and environmental regeneration strategy.

Operation rationale

Cities and urbanised areas can only be successful and sustainable if citizens want to live and work in them and are able to interact, travel and make their homes in them. They can only be attractive to external business visitors, investors and tourists if the overall urban context is safe, sustainable and with high environmental and aesthetic quality.

Green space in a town and city has a strong influence on the quality of life for its citizens. Such spaces provide opportunities for exercise, social interaction, relaxation, peace and quiet. Well-managed green spaces, parks and woodlands can become much loved and distinctive features of an urban area. They should be protected and the opportunity for new green areas or other public spaces to be created through the re-use of existing Brownfield land should be considered. Green spaces are also important for urban biodiversity. Enabling urban citizens to have contact with wildlife is an important way to raise awareness of wider environmental issues.

Specific investments will be supported with respect to certain urban areas for their physical renewal and saturation with public works for building an attractive urban environment, which in turn will lead to future investments and further development. These activities will comprise rehabilitation of urban environment in residential neighbourhoods, where there is a problem of social exclusion of a large portion of the population, improvement of public works of settlements, quarters and neighbourhoods inhabited by vulnerable social groups, contributing in this way to resolution of existing problems.

With the help of this operation, the shortage of green and leisure spaces will be remedied and attractiveness of the urban areas will be increased. To this end, it is intended to remove pavings and replant areas, to improve or, respectively, create new green spaces, to make use of vacant and fallow land in an eco-friendly manner as well as to build foot- and bicycle paths connecting hubs and important places inside the urban area.

To this end, this operation will support specific interventions designed to enhance both the physical urban environment (public works near business centres, housing areas, historical sites and buildings, etc.) and the living environment (open space, urban landscapes, parks and gardens).

The heavy rainfalls, floods and other calamities that have occurred in Bulgaria have left devastating consequences on the infrastructure and the regional and local economies.  In addition, many human lives have been jeopardized. The rainfalls have caused extensive flooding, material damages and even victimized the population. Climate change is likely to lead to more extreme weather patterns and itself increase the frequency of floods. These floods could provoke subsequent swamping of the urban areas and harm the existing urban environment. Therefore, this operation will support small scale type of investments to promote risk prevention and security for the urban centres to adequately face and deal with potential devastating natural phenomena. All flood protection projects will be part of the integrated river basin management plans in coordination with the Ministry of Environment and Waters in order to ensure compliance with the EU Floods Directive and the Water framework directive (WFD).

In addition to the risks from flooding, in the larger agglomeration areas the poor fabric of both residential and industrial/commercial buildings and infrastructure together with inadequate fire fighting equipment and vehicles for urban situations and facilities such as water hydrants in poor repair means that in many areas the risk of extensive fire damage is particularly high resulting not just in damage to life and property but also in increased risk and scale of environmental pollution. Specific risk prevention investments will therefore be supported with respect to certain urban areas where the fire risks and related problems of urban degeneration and environmental pollution are the most crucial.

Rehabilitation of street networks will be supported only after the respective underground infrastructure has been repaired or improved.

This operation will support elaboration and implementation of integrated urban regeneration and development plans sensitive to social and functional diversity to tackle the high concentration of economic, environmental and social problems affecting urban areas (Commission Regulation No1080/2006, Article 8).

List of indicative activities to be supported

• Rehabilitation and establishment, regeneration and creation of public recreation areas, e.g. parks, children playgrounds etc.;
• Improvement in the urban environment through provision of benches, shelters, fountains,  statues, etc.; 
• Construction/ reconstruction/ rehabilitation of street footpath and sidewalks renewal and access improvement for disabled people; construction of cycle paths and alleys, pedestrian zones, alleys and sub-passages for pedestrians and cyclists, including related interventions such as signposting, provision of off-street parking, etc.;
• Rehabilitation, reconstruction of street networks and introduction of energy efficient street lighting and other measures for increasing security and preventing criminality, e.g. park area lighting, security systems for observation and monitoring of public places, etc.;
• Access facilities to administrative municipal buildings for disabled people;
• Grassroots’ initiatives, partnership networks and action plans for urban development ;
• Small scale infrastructure measures for prevention against floods and landslides, (i.e. dikes, barrages and other supportive facilities); for preventing banks’ erosion, creating small scale retention volumes, weirs, etc.; rehabilitation and construction of drainage facilities and infrastructures;
• Upgrading of existing, and provision of new facilities and equipment including vehicles for containing fire and preventing damage to life and property from fires and fire hazards;
• Integrated urban regeneration and development plans;
• Implementation of JESSICA (investments in net revenue generating projects, corresponding to OPRD Priority Axis 1 objectives, which could include any of the eligible indicative activities under Priority Axis 1, industrial zones, business, trade and entertainment centers, sports facilities and other public private partnerships and urban projects).

Each JESSICA project shall be in compliance with the relative Urban Master plans/detailed spatial plans and the Municipal Development Plans, being considered as Integrated urban development plans according to Article 43, 1 (b) of Regulation 1828/2006.

Beneficiaries

Municipalities, cooperation of municipalities, non-profit organizations in partnership with municipalities, Ministry of Interior/ General Directorate ‘Fire Safety and Rescue”  (specific beneficiary), 36 municipal centers of agglomeration areas according to Annex 3a of OPRD are to be determined as specific beneficiaries under the Grant Scheme (specific beneficieries for elaboration of integrated plans for urban revitalization and development), EIB (specific beneficiary in its capacity of a Holding Fund under JESSICA initiative), Urban Development Funds (financial engineering instruments, investing in public-private partnerships or other urban projects included in an integrated plan for sustainable urban development).

Last modified: Wednesday, September 14, 2011 2:51 PM