Environmentalists warn not to beat about the bush as regards swapped forests

In the beginning of next week the environmentalists will send to the Premier Boyko Borisov a series of steps, which he can take in order not to arrive at the result of Bulgarian tax payers paying the fines for forest swaps.

The “ Let the Nature Remain in Bulgaria” Coalition reminds that the forest swaps are sate aid because the ordinance on the assessment of forests as per which the assessment of the real estates has been performed is not reflecting adequately the free market of land and forests, as well as the demand and supply of properties.

The swaps are state aid irrespectively of whether at the performance thereof there are culpable actions or not.

The environmentalists underline that the European Commission will not take a serious view of the allegations for criminal offence because this would mean to present evidence for initiated pre-court proceedings for all the carried out swaps. There are none of these up to the present moment.

The argumentation of potential crime can only postpone the infringement procedure for illegal state aid but it will set it going anew upon completion of the pre-court and court phases of the first penal proceedings.

The problem with the swaps does not concern only the swaps mentioned in the letters as these are just an example of Bulgaria’s action and all the swapped forests and lands are assessed as per the discredited ordinance for their assessment.

The “Let the Nature Remain in Bulgaria” Coalition reminds that the swaps of agricultural lands are also and to the same extent vicious and non-market as the swaps of forests. The decisions regarding the scandal with the swaps of agricultural lands and forests are exclusively internal and all institutions must unite for the cardinal and fast solution of this problem.

Contacts:
- Stefan Avramov, Bulgarian Biodiversity Foundation, tel. 088/6605410
- Konstantin Ivanov, WWF, tel. 02/9505040