Calls by more than a dozen environmental and civic organisations seem to have been recognised at a governmental level. On November 30, Environment and Waters Minister Djevdet Chakurov appeared during parliamentary question time to recognise that many investors had built illegal developments in environmentally protected zones.
No investors were named by the minister but the municipalities that had endorsed and/or were in charge of legally unsound projects were listed. Sapareva bania was one of the main culprits. Chakurov said the fine issued by the ministry reached 10 000 leva for road development transgressions.
First, the municipality began the reconstruction and development of the road connecting Panichishte with the Pionerska hut without the proper environmental impact assessment (EIA) having been completed. An on-site check by ministry officials showed that a 1km long road section had encroached into the territory of the Rila reserve.
As a result, both the municipality and the building contractor, Plovdiv-based Stroymech, were fined by the ministry. Despite the penalties and the violation of local environmental legislation, the project was still continuing.
The municipality had also made unsanctioned amendments to the project to build a chairlift between the Pionerska hut to the Rilski Ezera hut, Chakurov told MPs. The project, underway since 2001, entered its second phase this year. The ministry was never informed about the construction of a gravel road. The municipality built it to erect new foundations for the chairlift. The penalty, again, did nothing to stop the development.
Opposition MPs, including Anastasia Mozer of the Bulgarian National Union (BNU), said illegal construction was unlikely to stop because the fines were negligible compared to project values. Hence they did not serve as a deterrent to construction in natural habitats.
Chakurov’s public statement coincided with an alert about serious transgressions that seek to “annihilate” Rila National Park and the Rhodope mountains being sent to Europol and the European Parliament. The letter was signed by 18 environmental and civic organisations, including the WWF Danube-Carpathian programme Bulgaria, the Bulgarian Bird Protection Union, Ecoglasnost and Let’s Save Irakli. It said that investors building in areas adjoining national parks had been acting in collaboration with the state authorities and the court and in transgression of the law.
The eco-activists also said that such violations cast a shadow on Bulgaria’s aptitude to legitimately absorb structural funds and served as testimony that the Bulgarian political elite will “attempt to rob” European taxpayers’ money.
The letter reiterated the organisations’ earlier statement that at the core of the of Bulgarian nature are several companies with headquarters in tax havens, non-transparent ownership structure and unknown origin of the money. The Bulgarian arm of Rillstone Trading Business Corporation, for example, is in charge of the multi-million dollar ski complex project Super Panichishte, just off Rila National Park. The eco-activists warned that the company had incorporated a joint venture with the local municipality to sell real estate and/or endorse construction on state- or municipally-owned forests and property; the municipality had no authority to do so.
The same scheme had been replicated in the Samokov and Smolyan municipalities with, respectively, the ski complexes Super Borovets and Perelik sports-tourism centre.
The organisations said that in the cases when investors had bought land from state or municipal ownership, the transactions occurred at prices below the market rates at the time. For example, the letter said that Rila Sport company, whose owner Slaveiko Staikov is the country manager of Rillstone Trading, bought 20ha of municipal land two years ago at a price of 70 000 euro a ha (seven euro a sq m) whereas the going rate at the time was 800 000 euro a ha (80 euro a sq m).
A year ago, the eco-activists said, Defence Minister Vesselin Bliznakov is alleged to have illegitimately sold Mount Forest, itself a subsidiary of a Virginian islands-based company, a 13.6ha site in Sapareva bania municipality. The deal, selling land at 36 000 euro a ha (3.6 euro a sq m) compared with a market price of 600 000 euro a ha (60 euro per sq m), referred to land in the real estate portfolio of the defence ministry. The organisations also pointed to Slaveiko Staikov as the person to have carried out the transaction.
