Yesterday, the National Assembly adopted the final amendments to the Environmental Protection Act (EPA), submitted by the Council of Ministers on initiative by the Ministry of Environment and Water.

The new texts address inconsistencies in the transposition of three directives - on environmental impact assessment (EIA), on industrial emissions and Seveso. With this decision by Parliament, Bulgaria aims to successfully close the related three infringement procedures, which are currently at the reasoned opinion stage - this is the last stage of the pre-trial phase before referral to the Court of Justice.

There are already 17 environmental infringement procedures against Bulgaria, after the European Commission closed one of the 18 active under the Floods Directive. The MOEW has taken the necessary actions to close a few more procedures by the end of this year.

Amendments to the EPA were also adopted, which return the second instance for appeals against environmental impact assessment acts (EIA) and acts on environmental assessment for sites of national and strategic importance. The deputies adopted a text according to which appeals against the above-mentioned acts, filed after July 1, 2024, will be subject to two-instance court proceedings. Another amendment postulates that the appeals would be heard by the Supreme Administrative Court within six months of their submission, and that the court would announce its decision within one month of the hearing in which the case had been closed.

In support of the decision to return the second instance for EIA appeals, Deputy Prime Minister for Climate Policy and Minister of Environment and Water Borislav Sandov said that a balance had been stricken. According to him, the second instance court is a guarantee that a project will be granted an objective examination of the circumstances and evidence presented at first instance. At the same time, there should be no delay for important projects for Bulgaria, so the adopted texts provide for a “grace period”.