The Greek development firm Serres, based in the northern city of the same name, has developed projects worth around 40 million euro with the help of EU funds in the past six years, according to the firm's director Ioannis Kalogeroudis. He spoke to Bulgarian reporters visiting the city for a joint cooperation project carried out by the regional administrations of Serres and the southwestern Bulgarian city of Blagoevgrad, BTA reported.

The development firm was established in 1997 and has worked on the EU's Leader-2, Leader-3 and Leader + programs for agricultural development.

A project in tourism has been drawn up to create a joint tourist destination between Serres Prefecture and Blagoevgrad Region, whose capitals are about 100 km apart.

A joint tourist map of the two will be commissioned, which will provide all the necessary information to visitors. Each administration will get 5,000 copies. The project is worth 150,000 euro and is planned to be completed by November 2008.

Control within the Serres development company is conducted on four levels, Kalogeroudis said: by the administration of Thessaloniki Prefecture, by the Economy Ministry, by several other ministries, and by EU institutions.