Municipalities dragging their heels on the landfill construction issue will be punished by having their state subsidies trimmed, Bulgarian Environment Minister Nona Karadjova said on August 19 2009.

The measure, which is co-ordinated with Finance Minister Simeon Djankov, is designed to address the threat of hefty fines of tens of millions of euro that the European Commission could slap on Bulgaria because of a lack of modern waste facilities.

On August 19, the Cabinet decided to allocate close to 300 million leva from the budget to co-finance projects to build new regional landfills under the environment operational programme. This will be added to about 700 million euro of European funding, bringing the total to about a billion leva.

Even though the July 16 deadline to implement 23 landfill projects is looming large, only five of the capacities are in an advanced construction phase. On taking office, Karadjova warned the Commission would launch an infringement procedure against the country in September because of the delay. On August 19, she said she hoped Brussels will appreciate the new government’s active efforts to tackle the refuse issue it inherited from the former cabinet.

Sofia’s waste treatment facility, which is in the most advanced stage, will cost 183 million euro, with the municipality providing 50 million euro and the European Commission contributing the rest, Karadjova said.

Prime Minister and former Sofia mayor Boiko Borissov said that he had delivered on his promise to channel state money to the project.

Source: Dnevnik.bg