40% of the country is a demographic desert, with a population of less than 10 people per square kilometer, said Vazrazhdane leader Kostadin Kostadinov who chairs the parliamentary committee on demographic policy, children and family. The committee is sitting in Bulgaria’s smallest municipality Treklyano, which has a total of 300 inhabitants living in 19 villages.

• Accelerated economic growth is the only factor that can save Bulgaria from demographic catastrophe

The only way to halt the drastic depopulation is by improving the infrastructure, healthcare, the conditions for doing business, and by creating jobs, stated the participants in the sitting, among them the mayor of Treklyano, the chair of the municipal council and the regional governor of Kyustendil, as well as members of parliament.

“All mayors from the respective region need to get together and make a clear decision on the concept what direction you want your regions and municipalities to develop in. Every municipality should choose what to specialize in and make efforts to create the marketing product it wants to sell,” said the commission’s deputy chair Rositsa Kirova.