Sofia assumed Presidency of the most prestigious local governance forum in the Balkans - B40, BGNES reported.

Sofia Mayor Vasil Terziev took over the baton from the Municipality of Tirana, which was the start of the event. Before Sofia and Tirana, Istanbul and Athens have hosted the event.

Participating in the fourth edition of B40 are Ekrem Imamoglu - Mayor of Istanbul and founder of the B40 network, Tomislav Tomašević - Mayor of Zagreb, Predrag Puharičrić - Mayor of Sarajevo, as well as many other mayors of cities from the Balkans including Athens, Podgorica, Thessaloniki, Constanta, etc.

The aim is for the Sofia B40 Presidency to be a practical tool for the preparation and development of cities - both those in the pre-accession phase and the cities of the Member States.

Besides the mayors, the event is attended by representatives of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Head of NetZeroCities - Thomas Osdoba, spokesperson of the Council of Europe on Climate Change, Andre Sobczak - Secretary General of Eurocities and others.

The most interesting discussions of the Sofia B40 hosted event are related to enhancing regional climate resilience through sustainable urban development and green energy projects, promoting inclusive (inclusivity) governance practices, technological solutions for smarter governance, and finding the balance between technological innovation and ensuring cyber security.  | BGNES