On 29 and 30 June 2026, GLBF held coaching sessions for library specialists from the Central and North-Eastern regions of Bulgaria, on the subject of European Structural and Investment Funds. These sessions were part of the TELL: Trans-European Learning Libraries project, and were held at the Lyuben Karavelov Regional Library in Ruse.
Participants reviewed a series of studies, reports and good practices from Estonia, Italy and Poland on how European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) can be used to promote activities in the cultural and library fields.
They discussed why the implementation of ESIF in the library sector in Bulgaria is not so well known and widespread, with one reason being that the funds are managed by national governments with different rules and objectives applied across countries and regions. The possibility of using ESIF depends largely on the priorities of national and regional policy programmes and agencies. Additionally, unlike directly managed funds, ESIF operations do not usually involve transnational projects or direct contact with European authorities, making coordination and cooperation between libraries difficult. With the exception of INTERREG projects, which often involve cross-border partnerships, libraries that are recipients of ESIF grants do not usually interact with European organisation.
There was a discussion on possible steps for changing the programmes in the next programming period 2028-2034. One conclusion was that libraries have a lot of work ahead of them to convince the Council of Ministers and individual ministries to include libraries as beneficiaries. Good interaction and coordination with local municipalities is another way to include public libraries in the priorities at the local and regional level.
The training was held as part of the TELL: Trans-European Learning Libraries project, funded under the CERV (Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values) programme of the European Commission and implemented in Bulgaria by the Global Libraries – Bulgaria Foundation.
