Citizens appeal personally against the Minister’s decision to allow an offshore company to construct a new lift in Pirin National Park

This gives a legal opportunity to the incumbent Eco-Minister Ivelina Vasileva, as a principal of the state property in the national park and a competent institution on the environment to halt construction of the ski lift till the completion of the court procedures. The scandalous decision of the Oresharski Cabinet minister was even cited last week by Regional Minister Lilyana Pavlova as key legal grounds for completion of the construction in question. There would have been no need for appealing against that decision, if Minister Ivelina Vasileva had annulled it at the first signals of the environmentalists.

By information from tourists, the construction of the new ski lift started a week ago, with the protected area in the region of Banderishka polyana turned into a huge construction site. Construction goes on even now, despite ongoing checks from the Prosecutor’s Office and the refusal of the Eco-Ministry to allow the logging of 88 trees for the construction of the lift after environmentalists signaled that the offshore Marengo Trading has no real right on the territory of Pirin National Park and even less on territories given as concession to the firm Yulen AD.

The project was suspended in 2011 by Boiko Borisov’s previous Government, because it violated the concession contract of Bansko Ski Zone and the Pirin National Park management plan. In practice, these reasons were used by the appealers as a grounds to request from the court to declare the decision of Minister Anastasov from 2014 null and void, that is no legal actions follow from it. Appealing against null and void acts does not have a deadline. The urgent action by the environmentalists, who appealed against the decision of Minister Anastasov, was motivated by the threat among the old-growth forests in Pirin to appear another ski facility in violation of the law, and thus the law enforcement institutions to face a fait accompli when they check the case.

Thus, for example, the working group set by the Council of Ministers, inspecting the concession on Bansko ski zone, has yet not suggested a solution to the problems inherited after 2001 from at least five Governments, which led to illegal increase of the concession area by 650 decares, the construction of ski facilities without Eco-Ministry license and the transfer of sites from the concession of the concessionaire Yulen AD to another offshore firm Marengo Trading.

The coalition Let Nature Remain in Bulgaria warns that if the State refuses to terminate the shady affair of DPS and the criminal seizure of territories of Pirin National Park by an offshore company, this will pass the political responsibility for the violation of the law from Oresharski Government to the incumbent Borisov Government.

More information:
Current photos of the initiated construction in Pirin National Park can be seen here:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.891014304269656.1073741832.103266246377803&type=3

1. Legal history of the 3-seat Todorka lift, exposing the attempt by the offshore company to get possession of 3.4 hectares of Pirin National Park.

2. Scheme showing illegally increased servient area for the construction of the new 6-seat lift.

3. Decision № 12-П/2011 by Minister Karadzhova, with which the project is suspended in 2011:
г.:http://forthenature.org/upload/documents/2011/08/reshenie_MOSV_otkaz_lift_Shiligarnika-Platoto_2011.pdf
4. Letter № ОВОС-24/04.08.2014 by Minister Stanislav Anastasov:

http://forthenature.org/upload/documents/2015/03/Stanovishte%20OVOS-24_04.08.2014_lift%20Shiligarnika.pdf

Attachment 1. Legal history of the 3-seat lift under Todorka Peak, exposing the attempt of the offshore company Marengo Trading to lay its hands on 3.4 ha of Pirin National Park:

1. The existing 3-seat lift Ikrishte - Todorka in Pirin National Park is built by Municipal People’s Council (MPC) in 1985-86 in relation to the preparation for Balkan Winter Games and based on Ordinance №714/18.06.1985 of the Forests and Forest Industry Ministry, with which MPC is permitted to build the lift and other ski facilities in state owned forests. It is clearly written in the ordinance, that MPC is granted the right only over the facility. The lift is built without construction papers!

2. After completion of Balkan Winter Games and after pressure from mountaineers and nature lovers, Todor Zhivkov suspends all construction in Pirin, Rila and Vitosha, based on which the execution of Ordinance №714/18.06.1985 is suspended finally with Ordinance №466/14.05.1987 of AGSGP. The existing facilities in Pirin are assigned for managing 50% to Bansko Municipality and 50% to Academica, an entity under Ministry of Education.

3. In 2000, 3-seat lift Ikrishte-Todorka is included in Management Plan of Bansko Ski Zone, with area 19,300 m2 (1.93 ha), approved with Ordinance № 09-13 от 01.03.2001 by Bansko Municipality Mayor.

4. In 2001 the 3-seat lift (including its track of 19,300 m2) is included in the concession contract between the Ministry of Environment and Water and Yulen AD, for construction and operation of ski zone with center the town of Bansko. The contract assigns to Yulen AD exceptional rights for usage of 99.55 ha of Pirin National Park as per the Management Plan for Development of Bansko Ski Zone. The lift Ikrishta – Todorka is under N7 in the zone’s concession sites plan in Attachment N1 to the Concession Contract. It is also specified in the tender documentation that for private facilities in the ski zone is required that investors have a concession right for economic activity in Pirin National Park, which Marengo Trading does not possess.

1. In 2002 the 3-seated lifted Ikrishte – Todorka is sold by state-owned company Academica 2000 to Yulen AD with a contract dated 18.10.2002, with the objective of executing the concession, but without the agreement of Bansko Municipality, which owns 50% of the lift. Two months later, with a contract from 29.12.2002, Yulen AD transfers the lift to the related firm Marengo Trading EOOD. It is clear in both contracts, that only the rope-way without a right on the land under the facility is sold, with which however a site of the concession is sold in violation of the concession contract and the Concessions Act.

2. In 2011, with notification № ОВОС-187/26.01.2011, the concessionaire Yulen AD, which possesses the concession right over the usage of the 3-seated lift within the concession of Bansko Ski Zone, applies to the Ministry of Environment and Water an investment proposal for replacement of the 3-seated lift Ikrishte – Todorka (area 1.93 ha) with 4- or 6-seated lift with area 2.2 or respectively 2.6 ha. Minister Nona Karadzhova’s Decision 12-П/2011 rejects the proposal as inadmissible for the following reasons:

- The replacement of 3-seated lift with a 6-seated new one is not envisaged in the Manament Plan and the Environment Impact Assessment of Bansko Ski Zone.
- The replacement of the facility is not envisaged in the concession contract for the ski zone and leads to exceeding of the concession area.
- In the implementation of the investment proposal, areas from Zone III of Pirin National Park will be affected, in which construction is not allowed.

3. In 2014, with notification №ОВОС-24/14.04.2014, an investment proposal for replacement of 3-seated lift with a 6-seated one is again presented to the Ministry of Environment and Water by the owner of the facility Marengo Trading EOOD. In order to cover the irregularity of the investment proposal, justified with Decision № 12-П/2011 by Ministry of Environment and Water, the investor declares that the new lift will be built entirely over the existing track, without any new area, with the area of the existing track being not 1.93 ha anymore, but is declared 3.2 ha. The new area is justified not with easement or real right for usage of areas of Pirin National Park (there are no such rights), but with the standard under BDS EN 12929 for safety width of 12.30 m of the rope-way. The illegal increase of the easement is covered through the claim that only new-grown trees within the easement will be logged, which should not have been allowed to grow there. However, it turns out that on that area there are trees nearly 100 years old. In addition, the lack of real right and concession right is covered through an arguable procedure for recovery of construction papers based on easement, which does not exist in the cadaster of Bansko Municipality.

4. With Opinion № ОВОС-24/04.08.2014 by the Minister of Environment and Water, Stanislav Angelov (DPS) from Oresharski Cabinet, the investment proposal for “Reconstruction of 3-seated lift Ikrishte – Todorka (cited in the letter as Shiligarnika – Todorka), Bansko Ski Zone with contractor Marengo Trading EOOD, is conformed with the Biological Diversity Act despite the lack of real right or concession right of the contracting authority and in absolute contradiction with the motives of the rejection by the Ministry of Environment and Water with Decision № 12-П/2011.

5. A decree from 23.02.2015 by Blagoevgrad Regional Prosecutor’s Office reports the documentation under correspondence №3859/2014 to Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office for inspection of an eventual crime completion as per Art. 282 of the Criminal Code, completed by Minister Stanislav Anastasov in relation to the conformation of the investment proposal in violation of the law and the concession contract, and at almost double exceeding of the easement area of the lift.

6. Signal № 100/2015 – II of the Supreme Administrative Prosecutor’s Office calls for suspension of opinion № ОВОС-24/04.08.2014 by the Minister of Waters and the Environment Stanslav Anastasov as null and void.