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Overview
Lobbying Costs
75,000€
Financial year: Jan 2014 - Dec 2014
Lobbyists (Full time equivalent)
5.5 Fte (9)
Lobbyists with EP accreditation
0
High-level Commission meetings
0
Lobbying Costs over the years
-
Info
Stara Zagora Regional Economic Development Agency (SZREDA)
EU Transparency Register
484687816542-09 First registered on 14 Mar 2015
Goals / Remit
SZREDA is established 20 years ago as association of local authorities from the Stara Zagora Region, Trakia University and other public organisations. The main objective of the REDA - Stara Zagora is to support the development and implementation of mechanisms to manage the process of successful integration into the European community of local and regional authorities and businesses in the region through policies development at regional and local level aimed at sustainable development of the region and stimulate economic development, as follows:
1. To support local and regional governments in their efforts for sustainable development and creating a favorable business environment;
2. To support the development of successful partnerships, both between local authorities and between local authorities, business and civil society;
3. To encourage and promote entrepreneurship and SMEs;
4. To promote the region and attract national and foreign investment;
5. To assist unemployed and other disadvantaged groups for their integration into the labor market through training and technical assistance;
6. To encourage innovation and introduction of new technologies in local and regional economy;
7. To preserve and restore the environment as a prerequisite for sustainable development in the region;
8. To act as a cluster of regional development together with its member institutions and organizations;
9. To encourage and foster the development of different forms of sustainable tourism.
Stara Zagora Regional Economic Development Agency (SZREDA) has worked on a number of programmes and projects, funded by the European Union.
The main activities of the Stara Zagora Regional Economic Development Agency (SZREDA) include:
Providing surveys and analysis of Stara Zagora's regional economy, including design and implementation of strategies for economic development;
Developing and implementing projects to solve significant social issues by mobilizing local resources and attracting outside resources;
Providing office space, information and advisory services to SMEs, local governments, government institutions, NGOs, as well as identifying business contacts and financing opportunities;
Organizing training and re-training programs to meet the requirements economies in the process of development and restructuring;
Organizing meetings, exhibitions and fairs to promote local business; providing assistance for participation in trade exhibitions and business forums in country and abroad.
In implementation of its initiatives and activities the SZREDA Team collaborates with a number of local, national and international organisations and authorities as European Commission, European Parliament, EURADA, Peace Corp, BARDA, Bulgarian Investment Agency etc.Main EU files targeted
The SZREDA activities are closely related to the three flagship initiatives of the Europe 2020 strategy that fall under the areas of employment, social affairs and inclusion, as follows:
1) Youth on the move: working with secondary school and university students and their associations in order to improve their chances in the United Europe;
2) An agenda for new skills and jobs: working with Labour Offices, Local and Regional Authorities in order to assist labour market reforms and overhaul EU employment legislation;
European platform against poverty and social exclusion: working with social enterprises on regional and national level as well as with their association on EU level in order to assist reaching of the agreed EU headline target of lifting at least 20 million people out of poverty and exclusion by 2020.
The SZREDA activities also followed the Regional Policy of EU, as well as Agriculture, Business and Economy, Communication.Address
Head Office
127 Gen. Stoletov str.
Stara Zagora 6000
BULGARIA -
People
Total lobbyists declared
9
Employment time Lobbyists 100% 3 50% 4 25% 2 Lobbyists (Full time equivalent)
5.5
Lobbyists with EP accreditation
No lobbyists with EP accreditations
Complementary Information
The core of the SZREDA Team are:
1) Rumyana Grozeva - PhD in regional Development, executive director;
2) Konstantin Stoyanov - PhD student in Entrpreneurship, dedicated to Social Entrepreneurs;
3) Pavlina Gospodinova - training and project experts;
When is required for some projects or public procurement contracts implementing external experts are sub-contracted depending by the area of tasks. Thus SZREDA is much more flexible in the implementation of its activities and its budget management.This approach has proved its usefulness in the past 20 years since the SZREDA and allows to be attracted a number of proven and experienced experts in their fields. In joint work with these professionals the SZREDA team also build its knowledge, skills and capacity.Person in charge of EU relations
Mr Konstantin Stoyanov (EU Integration Expert)
Person with legal responsibility
Ms Rumyana Grozeva, PhD (Executive Director)
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Categories
Category
III - Non-governmental organisations
Subcategory
Non-governmental organisations, platforms and networks and similar
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Networking
Affiliation
1) BARDA - http://www.barda.bg/en/;
2) National Rural Network - http://www.nsm.bg/en;
3) Europe Direct Network - http://europa.eu/europedirect/;
4) Forum Active Citizens - http://www.bgactivecitizen.eu/;
5) European Year of Citizens 2013 Alliance (EYCA) - http://www.europeaninstitute.bg/en/page.php?c=8&d=431;Member organisations
None declared
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Financial Data
Closed financial year
Jan 2014 - Dec 2014
Lobbying costs for closed financial year
75,000€
EU grant income for closed financial year
105,600 € (Source: DG COMM of EC; DG COMM of EP; DG ECHO; EFRD (INTERREG VIC; CBP Black Sea))
Other financial info
The SZREDA budget is funded mainly by public sources as grant schemes. Other part is funded by economic activities as public procurement contracts or services for public and private organisations in order to be funded public profit activities of the organisation. The member contributions is minimal.
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EU Structures
Groups (European Commission)
Since 2009 the Agency has a Framework Partnership Agreement with DG COMM as an Europe Direct Information Center. The FPA was countersigned till 2017. Europe Direct Information Centers is a Network of centres and expert speakers in every EU country giving information/advice on rights under EU law and EU policy, action and etc. The Network is comprised of 500 different local information-providers, spanning the 28 Member Countries of the European Union. These centres serve the local populations by providing information that concerns European politics and therefore encourages participation and interest in European politics among the youth and adult populations. Europe Direct also aims to keep the public up to date with EU developments, in order to bring the general public closer to EU institutions.
NoneACC
None
Groups (European Parliament)
None
Communication activities
Since its establishment 20 years ago SZREDA has implemented more over 50 projects dedicated to sustainable regional development in close partnership with local and regional authorities. As a full member of BARDA (Bulgarian Association of Regional Development Agency) SZREDA experts have participated in international projects dedicated to social entrepreneurship as a effective instrument of crisis and social exclusion overcoming.
Part of the SZREDA implemented projects are also dedicated to this task as follows:
1) Entreprenership Support for the Development of the Small and Medium-Size Enterprises Sector in Stara Zagora - Two specialized training modules were designed to address the specific needs of micro-enterprises and SMEs. These modules, attended by representatives from more than 80 local firms, provided a very comprehensive course in small enterprise management. Through the project we also offered hundreds of hours of consultation services to micro-enterprises and SMEs, designed and published two separate handbooks (Management of Small Firms & Customer Service) and designed and published websites for each of the three participating sectors: furniture, textiles and food processing machine building;
2) Creating Favourable Conditions for the Employment of Disabled People in the City of Stara Zagora, funded by the Small Grant Scheme of the British Embassy in Sofia - The primary focus of the project was to provide training and education. Fifteen people with disabilities received training in starting their own businesses and four of them developed written business plans with one plan receiving financial support for its start-up. 120 hours of advisory and consultancy services were also provided to small businesses and start-ups.Training was also provided to two companies currently employing disabled people. Management teams participated in three 2-day seminars addressing Human Resource Management, Marketing and Negotiation Skills.Websites were designed and published for each company and each had their catalog designed and published in time for their participation in the Plovdiv Fair in May 2004;
3) Hand Knit Crafts of Stara Zagora, Creating a Sustainable Enterprise - This project continues the work begun under the "Creating Favourable Conditions for the Employment of Disabled People in the City of Stara Zagora" project. SZREDA was assisting a local group of physically handicapped women, living in the Stara Zagora Home for the Handicapped, to turn their hand knit crafts skills into a sustainable enterprise;
4) Social Entrepreneurship Strategy Planning (SESP) - the project transfered a developed innovative learning models and (e-) learning content which are flexible enough to address the specific needs of the Social Entrepreneurship (time and place flexibility), are adoptable and modular (different backgrounds, sectors) and reflect the practical needs of the end users. TARGET GROUPS:
SESP focuses on managers / decision-makers of social enterprises, regardless of the sector to which they belong.
Primary target group: Managers / owners / decision-makers of social enterprises
Secondary target group: Educational institutions, trainers, tutors, coaches, consultants;
5) ISEDE NET – INNOVATIVE SOCIAL ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT NETWORK, funded by South East Europe CBP. SZREDA has participated as a BARDA Memeber. The overall objective of "ISEDE-NET" is to support the development of SE across the SEES thus contributing to the strengthening of social and economic cohesion over the transnational area of the project.Other activities
The SZREDA team collaborate with organisations and institutions at local, regional, national and EU level in program documents and strategies development. SZREDA is a partner in such documents development to all of the municipalities in the Region of Stara Zagora.
One of the SESP project activities was Cross-cultural analysis: Throughout National Researches were giving a clear picture of the state of the art of SEs in participating countries (Bulgaria, Austria, Germany, Lithuania, Portugal) and of the conditions on EU level affecting their development. Based on these researches the SZREDA team offered several suggestions to be included in Regional Development Strategy of the Stara Zagora Region, Municipal Development Plan 2014-2020 of the Stara Zagora Municipality and Integrated Plan for Urban Recovering and Development 2014-2020 of the City of Stara Zagora. All of them were accepted and included in these strategic documents.
Currently the SZREDA collaborate with organisations at national level ib Social Entrepreneurs Development.
Meetings
Meetings
None declared