The Kaliakra region is part of the winter habitats of the world endangered red-breasted goose as along it passes the migration route of thousands of other birds like the white stork and the great white pelican.
There were implemented projects for wind turbines, a golf playground, a spa centre and hotels with the endorsement of the Bulgarian authorities despite the risk of damages and disturbance of these species in extinction. As a result today the European Court recognized that Bulgaria has flouted the European Directives for the Birds and Habitats.
The Bulgarian government has broken the directives also because it has not declared the whole territory of Kaliakra a protected NATURA 2000 bird area. Until recently fully unprotected were the internal agricultural lands, which are important for internationally significant populations of threatened birds.
The Bulgarian society for protection of birds (BSPB), part of the international partner organization BirdLife International, for more than a decade has been trying to prevent the further deterioration and destruction of this unique place, a valuable part of the wild nature of the country.
“The decision of the European court reminds us that the law should be observed and enforced fully. It comes to the open the necessity that the Bulgarian government undertake immediate measures for removing the impacts over the affected areas of NATURA 2000. Besides it is of crucial importance that all places of NATURA 2000 in the whole country be protected in a proper way and the government ensure that it will promote the sustainable development in favour of nature and the people without tolerating the implementation of projects threatening the biodiversity,” commented BSPB experts. Wauter Langout, Official in charge of the European policies in the office of BirdLife for Europe and Central Asia said, “With this decision the European Union sent a clear message to the Bulgarian government that the protected NATURA 2000 areas could not be ploughed, turned into golf playgrounds, as well as that the wind farms should not threaten the important bird migration routes. The member states should stop allowing such territories to be destroyed, but the renewable energy sources should be built up in such a way that to keep the environment.”
Short information about the “Kaliakra”case
In 2008 the Bulgarian society for protection of birds lodged a complaint to the European Commission because of the real threat of destruction of unique habitats and the risk for heavy endangered birds for the reason of approved large-scale wind power projects, as well as a large number (468) investment projects of various kind but mainly related to living and resort building and building up of golf playgrounds. The implementation of these projects leads to irreversible destroying of unique habitats, especially of the only in their kind in Bulgaria Ponto-Sarmatian steppes. Affected are all bird species which are preserved in the protected areas – nesting, migrating and wintering. Almost 7 years the European Commission has been trying hard to direct our country to fulfil its obligations under the European legislation on keeping environment and to prevent the infliction of irreparable damages on nature in the protected areas in the Kaliakra region. It carried out a careful investigation, including external expert evaluation of all submitted materials and evidence under the case both from the government and the complainants. It initiated not a small number of meetings and discussions with the Ministry of Environment and Waters in order to give guidance for the proper implementation of the Directives. In 2012 the European Commission sent a last warning to Bulgaria that if the legislation is not met, the country will face trial in front of the Court in Luxemburg. This made our country undertake some steps in the direction of implementation of the legislation while adopted a moratorium for further building of wind turbines in Dobrudja, as well as some legislative amendments, allowing the decisions for approved but not realized within a five-year period projects to lose their legal force. Despite this the main Commission recommendations were not complied with, the problems in the Kaliakra region remained and the negative trends continued. Therefore the European Commission was forced to submit the “Kaliakra” case in the hands of the European Court in the autumn of 2013. Then the country undertook urgent measures to declare the whole territory of Important Bird Area “Kaliakra” a protected area for birds of the NATURA 2000 network. This last step on behalf of the government led to achieving the requirement for including the whole acreage of the important bird area in NATURA 2000. In spite of this all remaining problems connected with the endorsement and implementation of detrimental for the biodiversity projects are still at place and the Commission has enough reasons to plead in front of the European Court for non-fulfilment of the commitments of Bulgaria on implementation of the environmental legislation.
The facts today point out that in Protected Area “Kaliakra” there are still current 461 projects not to mention the wind power projects. Out of them 16 projects have been realized and 262 have been approved and could be implemented. The remaining projects are still at a stage of procedure for endorsement or at a stage of planning, but their future is unclear. In protected area “The white rocks”, where a significant part of the habitats have already been destroyed because of the built-up golf playgrounds, 19 projects have been realized, but 61 more projects have been approved and could be realized and other 24 are at a stage of planning or a procedure. These gloomy facts point out that the risk for the biodiversity in this region remains serious.
The European court pronounced for Bulgaria: The Government causes damages on environment
