Minister of Environment and Water Julian Popov presented to journalists the achievements of the MOEW in the past nine months of the government's mandate. He announced the latest landmark achievement for the country - Bulgaria has been officially approved to host the 61st regular session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which will be held in July in Sofia.

The Minister highlighted as the main focus of international activity the success of Bulgaria's participation in the 28th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Dubai, where our country earned a worthy place on the map of climate diplomacy. "We had a delegation of 280 people, larger than those of the Netherlands and Belgium, dominated by the business and industry. Our interest in hosting COP29, which was blocked by Russia, earned us the reputation of a very respected partner in global climate diplomacy," said Minister Popov. Bulgaria is preparing its participation at COP29 in Baku.

A Memorandum of Understanding on Environmental Cooperation with Ukraine was signed during the Dubai conference. "Bulgaria has become a co-leader, together with Finland and Germany, in the process of Ukraine's ecological restoration under President Zelensky's peace formula - a position that puts us in an important geopolitical constellation," said the Minister. He highlighted as a success for the Ministry of Environment and Water that Bulgaria counteracted to the disseminated information about expected environmental damage after the Nova Kakhovka dam incident.

Significant progress has been made in the framework of our country's accession process to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in the field of environment. "Being in the OECD means that the country is well governed," noted Minister Popov. With its work, the MOEW has taken the lead among Bulgarian institutions, meeting the OECD's high accession criteria. Bulgaria successfully passed technical reviews under 35 of the Committee's legal instruments and demonstrated compliance with them. The review process of all 65 environmental instruments has thus been finalised. Bulgaria has demonstrated full compliance with 61 instruments and the necessary actions, including regulatory changes, have been taken on the remaining 4 instruments. 

Two infringement procedures have been closed in the past nine months. Our country has fully complied with its commitment to close and recover all 113 landfills subject to the Court of Justice of the European Union decision in case C-145/14. The procedure related to the implementation of the Habitats and Birds Directives on the territory of the Kaliakra Important Bird Area was also closed.

In relation to international work, a very important reform is the transformation of the Climate Directorate of the MOEW into the Directorate General for Climate Change Policy - it will become twice as big, including in resources and employees. "If this transformation had taken place ten years ago, there would have been no drama with the Maritsa Basin or the Green Deal and everything would have been well planned," explained Minister Popov.

"A great achievement is the adopted methodology for mapping and defining the boundaries and type of sand dunes, which has received international recognition from the European Commission, as well as from experts from Italy and Spain," the minister emphasized, and called on the public to keep a watchful eye on compliance with the methodology, because the dunes are subject to "criminal actions, and also to seemingly legal actions for taking them over."

"We have made progress with the national parks.  We have terminated a lot of vehicle permits on their territory. After many tough talks with farmers and livestock producers, we reached an agreement to reduce cattle in the national parks. The process is not over, but the decision is final," said Minister Julian Popov.

He also reported on the progress with the work on odours - although the issue is not settled at EU level, a review of experience and legislation on odour regulation in 28 countries has been carried out and submitted to Parliament. A basis has been set from which Bulgaria can start to regulate odours. The process involves the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works and local authorities. In Razgrad, decisive measures have been taken and the unpleasant odours have been completely overcome.

Today, Minister Popov signed 11 orders for the designation of protected areas and thus a total of 33 orders have been issued within the mandate. An environmentally friendly approach has been achieved for the construction of the expressway route outside the Struma River combe. The drafts of the River Basin Management Plans 2022-2027 are being finalised and will be published for public discussion by the end of the month. "I am proud of the work by MOEW teams," said Julian Popov. “We are also accelerating the work on the development of the deposit system for packaging waste, which is planned to be introduced in 2026.”

"My favourite project - improving the environmental status of urban rivers - will continue, regardless of my future role. I promise this and not just for the Perlovska River. We have found very strong public and business interest in the initiative, including companies that are clearing up the Perlovska River to keep it clean without anyone asking them to," said the Minister.

"We want and it is possible to shorten the investment process by 12 months. If now a company receives an EIA for about two and a half years, the goal is to reduce this period to a year and a half," said Julian Popov. More specialists and digitalization of the process will be needed to ease the whole regulatory regime.