“Rila Buffer”: Bulgaria demonstrated its reluctance to comply with the EU rules

The representatives of the scientific organizations opposed this decision but surprisingly Ministry of Environment and Waters and the rest state administrations in the council – Ministry of Agriculture and Foods and Executive Agency for Forestry supported the postponement. With its motives the state represented by MEW clearly showed that it disregards the requirements of the European and national legislation, the scientific arguments and the high conservative value of the area proven by multiannual research and analyses. With this action the MEW and the other state institutions clearly showed that they are reluctant to conform to the last warning addressed by the European Commission in the autumn of 2014 that Bulgaria should fulfill its obligation to include the territory in question within NATURA 2000 since it is part of the Important Bird Area (IBA) “Rila”. Then the Commission gave a two-month deadline and steps for fulfilling the obligation were undertaken but the Ministry delayed the decision making with a whole year and at the end again decided on postponement.
This decision was taken although only a month ago our country was convicted for non-fulfilling of its obligations under the European environmental legislation, including for that it did not declared entirely another bird area subject to declaration, and namely Kaliakra – in 2007.

Decision taking for delay of the adoption of the area and reconfirmation and updating of data subjected to 5 independent checks during the last 10 years, including 2 international ones, without credible argumentation for the need of this, unambiguously shows the state policy in the environment protection sphere. The gross disregard of obligatory regulations confirms the unconcern of our state for sharing of the common European values such as the care for and conservation of nature and its resources and the sustainable development of the regions and usage of the resources.

The promulgation of the entire IBA “Rila” as a protected bird area will increase the national coverage of NATURA 2000 only with 0,19% but at the same time it will ensure effective protection and management of a significant part of the national populations of a number of forest bird species. The NATURA 2000 area would guarantee the conservation and sustainable usage of the old forests in the Rila Mountain not only on account of the birds, but also because of the needs of people of drinking water, clean air, flood prevention and storing of the surpluses of carbon dioxide.

Additional information

In accordance with the European legislation the Member States are obliged to declare enough in number and acreage protected bird areas while measures other than their declaration are not accepted as enough. Also at the stage of determining of the territories and their boundaries economic or other arguments different from the scientific ones could not be used. Only scientifically justified ornithological criteria are used as the criteria of BirdLife International for determining of IBAs are recognized as such by the European Court. For the lawsuit “Kaliakra” the Court clearly judged that the Member States are obliged to categorize all territories which after applying the criteria are identified as most appropriate, and found that Bulgaria is guilty for noncompliance with this requirement with its 7-year delay for declaration of the entire IBA as a NATURA 2000 protected area. The Court has repeatedly enacted in different cases that for territories of bird importance, which have been proposed to be included in NATURA 2000 but have not been declared as such, article 4.4 of the Bird Directive acts, which requires no pollution or damage of bird habitats or bird disturbance. This article will continue to act for “Rila-buffer” until it is included in NATURA 2000 and each violation of it will lead to punitive actions.

IBA “Rila” covers a significant part of the territory of Rila Mountain as it includes the National Park “Rila”, the Natural Park “Rila Monastery” and a territory around both parks which does not have legal protection. IBA “Rila” encompasses the high alpine parts of the mountain, as well as many old coniferous and deciduous forests and meadows, inhabited by 130 nesting bird species.

IBA “Rila” was proposed for including within NATURA 2000 10 years ago (in 2006), but yet at declaring the environmental network for the birds in 2007 it was one of the sites which were not entirely declared as protected areas. For this reason it was included in the penalty procedure against Bulgaria for insufficiency of the network for bird protection, started yet in 2008. Then only the National Park was declared a NATURA area. In 2010 as a result of active negotiations between the European Commission, the Bulgarian government, NGOs and scientific organizations and at deep analysis of the scientific arguments the territories of 4 of the 6 protected areas, object of the procedure, were expanded sufficiently. As regards IBA “Rila”, however, only Natural Park “Rila Monastery” was included within NATURA 2000, and the territory unprotected by law called “Rila buffer” was delayed for consideration at a later stage. As a result 15% of the territory of IBA “Rila” remained outside NATURA 2000 – mainly old coniferous, deciduous and mixed forests, but also meadows and grasslands in the lower part of the mountain. In this way most affected are the wood bird species for which Rila is the most important site for their protection in the entire European Union. After 4 years of waiting the European Commission addressed its last warning to Bulgaria for noncompliance with the European laws since it continues in a justified way to consider that the declaration of the entire territory of IBA “Rila” is scientifically justified and without the territory of “Rila-buffer” the obligations of our country regarding the network sufficiency are not fulfilled.

Although for 9 years yet our country has been in a violation of the legislation, despite the scientific facts and arguments, in spite of the legal requirements, the National Council for Biodiversity under the pressure of economic and other arguments, based on dubious expertise without scientific value and justification, continued to delay the observation of the laws. This demonstration of disregard to the European laws could cost the Bulgarian taxpayer too expensively, especially after the court decision for Kaliakra. The consequences for the environment in “Rila-buffer”, those for a lot of people living in the opposing municipalities, as well as for those living far away outside their boundaries, will be apparent later when it will be impossible to correct our mistakes.