NOISE FOR THE NATURE
About 1000 citizens and environmentalists took part in the two-hour protest march against unregulated construction in Bulgaria’s protected nature areas. The march took place in central Sofia on October 7, with protestors playing musical instruments, whistles, horns and hand-made instruments to loudly express their feelings. To Sustain the Nature in Bulgaria coalition and the civic group Citizens for Rila organised the march, and members of a range of environmental organisations took part, including Bikevolution association, Bluelink.net, Bikearea and others.
DESTROYING MORAINES
Damage to an area of the Vitosha Mountains, caused by illegal blasting to expand a ski zone, has resulted in Environment Minister Djevdet Chakurov ordering Sofia Regional Inspectorate of Environment and Waters (RIEW) to take the matter to the Prosecutor’s Office. The blasting has damaged special types of moraines and Alpine plant species. The devastation was caused because of the expansion of the Vitosha ski zone by the offshore company Vitosha Ski AD, the owner of all Vitosha ski lifts, and connected to Bansko Ski Zone in Pirin Mountain, Ulen AD.
HEATING ROW GOES ON
Sofia municipality will increase its stake in Sofia’s heating utility Toplofikatsiya to 75 per cent by injecting up to 50 million leva in the company to help it repay debts to state-owned gas firm Bulgargaz. The city hall owns 58 per cent of Toplofikatsiya’s shares with the rest owned by the state.
ANARCHY AT SCHOOL
A shocking TV documentary showed on private commercial bTV channel revealed the dire state of Bulgaria’s high schools, The documentary was shot by a bTV reporter who used hidden camera to film students. He worked for a month as a teacher in one of Sofia’s high schools. The film showed lack of discipline, violence, drug-taking and more.
ON BELENE
German power utility RWE is staking its reputation by pursuing an interest in buying a 49 per cent share of the company building Bulgaria’s second nuclear power plant Belene, Greenpeace said on October 6. Greenpeace said that the fact that the site was in an area of high seismic activity and Bulgarian companies would be awarded contracts without a public tender will open the doors to corruption and make it difficult to guarantee the highest safety standards. On October 3 Bulgaria’s Cabinet picked RWE as the preferred stakeholder, with the major part to be kept by state National Electricity Company.
US SPECIAL VISIT
Clayland Boyden Grey, US special envoy for European affairs and Eurasia energy, met Bulgarian President Georgi Purvanov, Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev and Foreign Minister Ivailo Kalfin on October 7 in Sofia. The visit of the American envoy comes from the growing international interest over Bulgaria’s energy policy. The officials discussed Purvanov’s initiative to hold a highest-level summit in Sofia in April 2009 on the topic of energy security and European gas pipeline projects.
TIP-OFFS
Parliament’s anti-corruption committee has been given information about politicians who have been “burdened” with corruption, the committee’s head Boiko Velikov told private broadcaster bTV on October 7. One example was the tip-off the committee received from independent MP Yane Yanev on the income tax declaration by Plamen Yuroukov, leader of the right-wing party in opposition, the Union of Democratic Forces, Velikov said. Yuroukov is currently under investigation by the National Revenue Agency for alleged discrepancies in his tax declaration, something he has denied.
EU MONEY
The state administration has signed 1479 contracts worth 1.2 billion leva under European Union operational programmes (OPs) over the past four months, Deputy Prime Minister for EU Funds Management Meglena Plougchieva told an October 6 news conference. Beneficiaries have received 20.5 million leva, she said.
