The monthly fine that Kremikovtsi has to pay after the Regional Inspectorate on Environment and Waters (RIEW) recently completed its second check and analysis for 2007 on the pollution the steel factory causes, is about 100 000 leva. This information was given to The Sofia Echo by RIEW PR officer Janet Atanasova.

RIEW checks the Kremikovtsi works twice a year. Atanasova said this will still continue, the steel factory has been paying fines for many years and this time the amount was increased. Eighty per cent of the payment goes to the Sofia Municipality and 20 per cent to the Ministry of Environment and Water Affairs (MOEW).

Sofia municipality PR officer Tsveta Krusteva told The Sofia Echo the amount the city receives every month is deposited in the general budget, and is not used solely for ecological activities. It is allocated by the city council according to the needs of the municipality.

Questioned whether the 20 per cent of the fine that is paid to MOEW is used to reduce the pollution caused by the steel producer in some way, an expert from the MOEW press centre told The Sofia Echo that the amount is most probably distributed for environmental projects in different fields, not necessarily those concerning Kremikovtsi itself.

During the weekly meeting of Parliament's environment committee on July 26, after the Kremikovtsi ecological programme was presented, the MPs decided that they should look for a way to finance the elimination of the old ecological damages the steel producer has caused, and to modernise its facilities. The programme foresees investing 312 million leva over the period to 2012.

Kremikovtsi supervisory council chairperson Alexander Tomov said in the future the money will come from the money used for air and water purifying equipment.

However, the problems have existed for 40 years and therefore the company wants to fix them with money from partners, through which Kremikovtsi can receive money from the EU funds.

Environment Commission chairman Georgi Bozhhinov (Bulgarian Socialist Party, BSP) said that stopping the steel producer would not be the right decision because on this still would not solve the ecological issues, Bulgarian language Dnevnik daily reported on July 26. According to Bozhinov, the solution is modernisation and resolving the ecological problems.

He said that Sofia municipality, as well as the non-governmental organisations, have to attract European money for Kremikovtsi.

BSP MP Alexander Radoslavov said that the Government has to help as well because Kremikovtsi is a "structure defining production".

MOEW has returned to Kremikovtsi its request for a complex permit. The ministry has given 10 pages of instructions to the steel producer. The report said the factory has shortcomings in every respect - air, water and soil, and many of the company's activities do not meet legal requirements.

Environment and Water Affairs Deputy Minister Chavdar Georgiev said that MOEW would not make compromises with Kremikovtsi when it came to complying with ecological requirements.
On July 29, Gergyovden Movement said that it supports the idea of closing Kremikovtsi, which is maybe Sofia's worse polluter. The statement follows a motion by one of the political groups in Parliament to put a moratorium on the operation of the steel works because of its failure to comply with the environmental standards and default on payments to the public purse and state-owned organisations.