Europe will be imposing penalties on Bulgaria just as it has imposed penalties in the past on countries which have been violating their committment to Natura 2000.

This was the opening statement of Hristina Dimitrova, an indipendent environmentalist from the coalition “So we may have nature left in Bulgaria” as she started her remonstrance today in front of the Presidency in downtown Sofia.

Bulgaria’s offence towards natura 2000 is really huge, she added. That is why the expected penalty will also be huge – anywhere between tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of EUR.

It’s been already four weeks in a row that the independent environmentalists have been trying to attract the government’s attention hoping to affect its decision for postponing the listing of certain areas in Natura 2000.

Their protests are based on four essential demands:

That the government agrees to a meeting with representatives of the coalition, chosen among the experts who have worked on the framework project of the territories that are to be included in Natura 2000. Journalists will also be invited.

The cabinet also needs to ground its decision to postopne certain zones from entering the econet. The environmentalists insist on at least 40 minutes to present their arguments, followed by a discussion.

The Ministers will then be asked to elaborate on the procedure of finding qualified experts for the required research, having in mind that almost all of the scientific capacity of Bulgaria has already been included in the development of the abovemntioned econet.

The government needs to outline the measures which it has taken that these much disputed areas remain free of illicit interventions by the local authorties, enterpreneurs and investors, aiming at their extraction from Natura 2000, while the issue remains unssolved.