The E.VE.CR.I team concluded the successful execution of the project on the 10th of April in Blagoevgrad. The event, organised by the main partner SPEE-BG, was held at the city council hall and managed to attract over 40 attendants.
The event was opened by the organiser of the event Mrs Tsonya Krasteva. A small introductory speech in Mrs Krasteva’s characteristic gleeful style followed, expressing courtesy to the attendants, giving credit to the two architects of the project and then giving the floor to one of them – Mr Atanas Pashaliev, a notable local entrepreneur who has been acting as the official representative of the project’s main beneficiary SPEE-BG . Mr Pashaliev, with calculated assertiveness, described the importance of this project – both in terms of benefits for the local communities and in the grand scheme of ambitious ‘green’ European goals. He also touched on some of the administrative, nand political issues that affect the development of electric mobility and how our project attempted to tackle some of them at a local level.
Our event was also honoured by Mrs Jenya Dinkova – the Project Officer from the Joint Secretariat of the Interreg Greece-Bulgaria Programme. In her brief speech she further elaborated on the notion the the E.VE.CR.I project furthers our society’s endeavours for a more sustainable, brighter future.
The conference continued with a presentation from Mr Iliya Levkov, Chairman and executive director of the Board of Electric Vehicles Industrial Cluster. Mr Levkov has travelled across the whole of the cross-border area in Bulgaria in order to identify suitable locations and negotiate the installation of charging point at local SMEs. Being as informed on the topic of electric mobility as one can be, Mr Levkov for example shared an interesting fact that, according to recent amendments in the regulations, all new construction, from 2022 onwards, need to accommodate for a vehicles fleet that is at 10% electric.
Mr Radoslav Radev from Ennovaty gave the audience a summary of the publication his organisation has authored as part of the project – INVESTOR GUIDELINES FOR THE INSTALLATION AND OPERATION OF ELECTRIC VEHICLE CHARGING STATIONS. He covered some of the successfully built charging EV charging point in the framework of the project.
Dr Athanasios Tamvakos was the representative from the Greek partner – HIT/CERTH. He presented to the audience the Greek perspective of the E.VE.CR.I project. He also expressed the intense development of electric mobility in Greece with figure and number, with an emphasis on the steadily increasing in density network of charging points within the cross-border area.
Mr Martin Zaimov – the other architect of this project – presented in a tongue-in-cheek way the how the interaction between the government, citizens and businesses leads to a change or the lack of change in society, wherever important issues need to be resolved. As the presenter of our series of live events we held at numerous municipalities throughout the project, Mr Zaimov listed all the stakeholders in the cross-border area we have managed to educate on the topic of electric mobility and influence towards the direction of a more sustainable regional development.
This conference was well-deserved celebration of hard-work towards a cleaner and more sustainable. An effort, albeit tiny in the grand scheme of things, that has been considerably impactful for all the local communities that have been affected by it. It is evident that E.VE.CR.I has set the pace for further success in the development of electric mobility in the cross-border region, success that all involved parties are looking forward to witnessing.