Eco-Rally Alerts EU Ministers to Bulgarian Park 'Threat'

Save Pirin protesters welcomed EU environmental ministers and the EU environment commissioner Karmenu Vella to Sofia on Tuesday with a protest against a controversial development plan for the Pirin Mountain National Park.

Vella said however that the EU has found no breaches of its regulations by the Sofia authorities over the development plan for the UNESCO-designated national park in the country's south-west.

"At this moment we cannot take any measures against Bulgaria over the Pirin case, because we have no grounds to do so and there are no breaches of European law," Vella told Bulgarian national television on Tuesday evening.

Vella is in Bulgaria to attend a two-day informal summit of environmental ministers of 19 EU member states, part of Sofia's rotating presidency of the EU Council. Topics for discussion included the implementation of EU environmental rules.

The Save Pirin movement has been protesting since December against a change to the national park's management plan by the Bulgarian coalition government to allow ski resort expansion.

Although its weekly protests have been losing steam over the past few weeks, they still managed to gather a few hundred protesters in front of the National Palace of Culture in Sofia, where the ministers' meeting took place.

Save Pirin sent an open letter and a specially filmed video clip to the ministers and the EU Commission, calling for the reversal of the government decision to change the management plan.

Activists from the Za Zemiata (For the Earth) movement also protested about air pollution wearing gas masks in front of National Palace of Culture on Tuesday afternoon.

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Thousands in Bulgaria Protest Against Mountain...