The Council of Ministers appointed the Deputy Prime Minister for Climate Policy and Minister of Environment and Water Borislav Sandov as the Bulgarian chairperson for the Commission on the Protection of the Black Sea against Pollution and as head of the Bulgarian delegation to the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River.

At the end of October 2021, our country took over the rotating chairmanship of the Commission on the Protection of the Black Sea against Pollution (Black Sea Commission) for a period of one year. The commission was established under the Convention for the Protection of the Black Sea against Pollution and includes the six countries of the Black Sea region - Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, the Russian Federation, Turkey, and Ukraine. The Commission and its advisory groups deliberate on coordinated actions for the protection of the marine environment and live resources, taking into account economic, social, and health aspects.

The Convention on Cooperation in the Protection and Sustainable Use of the Danube River was signed on June 29, 1994 in Sofia and entered into force for our country on April 6, 1999. The executive body of the Convention is the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube, which includes the heads of delegations of the 15 contracting parties: Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, and Moldova. The parties to the convention cooperate on fundamental water management issues, taking “all necessary legal, administrative, and technical measures to ensure the necessary minimum maintenance and, where possible, the improvement of current water quality and environmental conditions” in the Danube river and the waters of its catchment area, as well as to prevent and reduce, as far as possible, adverse effects and changes that may occur or be caused.”

Photo: Yulia Lazarova, Dnevnik