Political Parties discuss their future ecological policy

The debate aroused great public and media interest. The participation of Mr. Chavdar Georgiev- Vice-minister of Environment and Water- in the quality of a BSP-representative, was an unexpected surprise for the organising committee from the Coalition „Let nature remain in Bulgaria“. In spite of the four-year-long practice of inactivity and contribution to the destruction of the Natura 2000 zones and Bulgarian protected territories, he expressed the party’s firm intention to guarantee the abiding of the European law and the correct application of the Natura 2000 network during the next government. In addition, he promised that the party will promote their co-operation with the non-profit and public sectors.

The representatives of GERB declared their strong intention to increase the percentage of protected territories up to the average European standard of 12%, instead of the current 5%. They also claimed that changes in the way ecological expertises are rendered will be in progress. We would like to remind you that according to the current practice, the investor pays scientists to prepare an ecological expertise report, which generates preconditions for corruption and invalid estimations of the influence of a given investment on the environment.

Similar intentions and engagements were also expressed by the Blue Coalition; however, they gave prominence to their firm policy of immediate execution of the country’s obligations concerning the European legislation as well as the securing of a tangibly functioning Natura 2000 network in Bulgaria.

The representatives of GERB, BSP, The Blue Coalition, The Greens and The Other Bulgaria share a common view of the importance of the preservation policy of Bulgarian forests and the need of forest certification. However, only three of them (GERB, The Blue Coalition and The Greens) firmly committed to decree a 20-year-moratorium on the change in the use of the already bartered forests.

It was not a surprise that only the party of The Greens had worked out a plan in their program covering all demands and recommendations concerning ecological policy which were given by the non-profit sector in their „10 points“.

It was also not surprising that the representative of LIDER- Hristo Kovachki’s political party- was not able to indicate any point in their program having anything to do with the preservation of nature.

Despite all, it is important to point out the significant progress in the policy of the Bulgarian parties in the last years, as well as the fact that for the first time some of them are working out their own strategies of ecological policy at least in outline.

We, Coalition „Let nature remain in Bulgaria“, intend to continue the bilateral discussions with the election candidates until the elections in July and to assist them through expert statements in working out concrete steps and engagements concerning the preservation of Bulgarian nature during the next government period. In addition, we will present a thorough list of the decisions and strategies of each party and their results to the broad public and to our volunteers ten days before the elections.

We document and film all statements and promises, and even after the elections we will not tire of reminding of the engagements assumed. We count on the active and conscious citizens to keep track of and to support the process. Despite of the harsh experience recently, let us make the words turn into deeds.

This first discussion meeting was carried out as a part of the project „A place for future“ with the financial support of the Trust for Civil Society in Central and Eastern Europe and in cooperation with the Department of Political Sciences at the New Bulgarian University.

Translated by: Elena Popova