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The municipalities in these three southwestern regions have a very different economic and social profile - here are the industrial leaders of Sofia (region), which are among the most developed economies of the country as a whole, but also the aging and frozen in time border municipalities of Pernik. However, the overall development trajectory looks positive, especially if they manage to overcome the challenges in terms of human capital and demographics.

In 2018, the reform of planning regions was on the agenda, with a focus on their demographic stability and ensuring equal access to European funding for all parts of the country. However, no real reform was achieved, and the years of pandemic, war and political instability forced other, more urgent topics on the agenda.

Last week, we looked at how the costs of internal order and security in Bulgaria have the highest share of GDP (2.5%) among all EU member states, what is the structure of employees in the Regional Directorates of the Ministry of Interior (and how many police officers are "in the field"), as well as their distribution at the regional level and in relation to the crimes committed (in the North-West the workload is high).

The new IME study analyzes the innovation potential of Bulgaria at the sub-national level, with the main focus being groups of municipalities forming economic centers.

The Ministry of the Interior is famous for being the most bloated, the most expensive and the most rigid administrative structure. This year too, there was an extraordinary increase in funding for the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but it is not tied to reform either, it will not increase citizens' low trust in the police, nor will it significantly improve working conditions in the system.

Science, research and development in Bulgaria remains concentrated in the major economic centers, with Sofia concentrating more than ¾ of the expenditures and more than half of the people engaged in it. However, examples of small municipalities where this activity plays a key role can also be found in the country.

Often, when we think about the cities in Bulgaria, we assume that the larger ones, where there is a visible concentration of people and economic activity, are necessarily regional. However, this is not the case - in our country there are also examples of non-regional cities with a significant population, even larger than that of some of the 28 regional centers. Today we focus on three such cities and their adjacent municipalities - Kazanlak, Asenovgrad and Dimitrovgrad - and compare them with their regional "equivalents" in terms of population - Kardzhali, Vratsa, Razgrad.