Lawyers from the civil group Da Spasim Irakli (Let's Save Irakli) won the first round of the appeal they filed against the decision of Nessebur municipal council to ban tourists from pitching tents anywhere in the municipality. The local city council issued the ban at the start of the summer, saying it would impose a fine of 5000 leva on anyone caught breaching the ban.

The civil group won its case in the administrative court in Bourgas on July 4, Bulgarian-language environmental news website bluelink.net reported. The court suspended the ban until it pronounces a final decision on the dispute. The tents do not harm the public interests for preservation of the order and the cleanliness, the court said.

According to the civil group's lawyers, the municipal ban was apparently intended to keep away the fans of the Irakli wild beach, which is in Nessebur municipality. The planned fine was about ten times higher than the fines imposed in accordance to the same ordinance elsewhere and it violated the requirement of the Administrative Procedure Code that the actions of local authorities were commensurate to goals pursued.

The environmentalists said that a fine for illegal construction was 20 000 leva but the difference in the harm caused by illegal construction and pitching a tent could not be compared.

Da Spasim Irakli further said that it once again called for public support against construction in the Irakli area after the European Commission said it would not open an infringement procedure for violaition in the Natura 2000 zone in Irakli.