The European Commission (EC) decided to open six infringement proceedings against Bulgaria for non-compliance with the European Union (EU) law, the Bulgarian representation with the EU in Brussels said, as quoted by mediapool.bg on October 17.

Most of the proceedings were for breaches on environmental issues. Surprisingly however, Natura 2000, for which Bulgaria was recently warned, was not on the list, mediapool.bg said.

The EC was to take action against Bulgaria over failing to launch on time the single European 112 emergency phone number, over the delayed introduction of identification documents with biometrical data, over the inadequate waste management infrastructure in the capital Sofia, and over an unsettled issue regarding the legal regulation of the notaries’ citizenship. The EC would send Bulgaria written warnings on all the topics. If would fail to comply with these warning, Bulgaria was to become subject to fines and other punitive measures.

The Commission served a big surprise to Bulgarian authorities by starting a procedure because of the waste problems in Sofia, mediapool.bg said.

The EC decided on this particular action after receiving information that Sofia's waste management infrastructure was not proper and was a source of other trouble. Among the deficiencies identified by the EC, the leading were the lack of a system and installations for the recovery and disposal of the city's household waste, the lack or inadequacy of temporary storage sites, and the lack of adequate pre-treatment of the waste.

Among the other environmental concerns that caused the Commission action was the lack of sufficient information on the country’s forecasts for greenhouse gas emissions and measures the state would take to lower these emissions. Bulgaria had failed to include in its legislation the EC directive on port facilities and the treatment of waste from shipping operations.

After the previous announcement on October 14 that Bulgaria might be chased for not launching the single European 112 emergency number, the Minister for Disaster Management Emel Etem rushed to announce that the decision to complete and launch the system was to be made by the Government on October 18. Following 10 years of work on the system, only a pilot project had been launched in Sofia and it needed to be further developed, mediapool.bg said.