Official ceremony for the Mayor of the Year 2015 Awards will take place at the Marinela Hotel in the Bulgarian capital city Sofia on Friday.

Chairperson of the European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs Elmar Brok, and Head of European Commission’s DG Environment Georges Kremlis will be official guests at the ceremony.

The Mayor of the Year Awards is a one of its kind competition in Bulgaria and is organised for a third year in a row. The organiser of the event is Brand Media Bulgaria through the Kmeta.bg portal of the Bulgarian municipalities in partnership with FOCUS News Agency.

For the first time the accent in the Mayor of the Year Awards is put on the efforts of the local power during the entire mandate.  Two new awards will be introduced this year and they are “Mayor of Bulgaria” and “Mayor of Europe”.

The mayors in Bulgaria will compete in the following categories: Mayor of the Year; Mayor of the Citizens; Investments and Employment; Efficient Management of EU Projects; Local Tourism Promotion; Modern Agriculture; Adequate Living Environment; History and Culture Preservation; Healthy Residents; Innovations, Science and Education; Infrastructure Development; Future Generation’s Nature; etc.

There will be three prizes for small, medium and big municipality. Some 456,353 people voted for their favourite mayor in the national competition.In 2014 the Mayor of the Year Award went to Mayor of the coastal city of Burgas Dimitar Nikolov, while in 2013 – to Mayor of the capital city Sofia Yordanka Fandakova.