On June 2nd 2022 an informational meeting named "Integration of Refugees from Ukraine on the Territory of Sofia Municipality" was held, organized by the Sofia Development Association, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Bulgaria and the Bulgarian Council for Refugees and Migrants.

Representatives of state institutions, Sofia Municipality, non-governmental organizations and district administrations in Sofia shared their past experiences and future plans to help Ukrainian citizens and their integration. During the event, the upcoming national programs for financing municipalities, new trends and statistics regarding the refugee wave, as well as good examples from other European cities were presented. The meeting was attended by Krasimira Velichkova, adviser to the Deputy Prime Minister Kalina Konstantinova, Tsvetelin Sofroniev, Deputy Regional Governor of Sofia, as well as the secretary of the Sofia Municipality Venera Milova.

During the discussion the services provided at the national and local level were examined, as well as the importance of the NGO sector and voluntary organizations in dealing with the crisis. The participants of the meeting discussed not only the most effective practices that they applied in the crisis period, but also the gaps that they discovered in the organizational process. Participants united around the idea of centralization of efforts and decentralization of individual activities towards the common goal.

CONNECTION project: CONNEcting Cities Towards Integration action, is co-funded by the European Union’s Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund.