The government approved Bulgaria's position within a legal case before the Court of Justice of the European Union imposing sanctions on the country for non-compliance with its obligations on air quality.

Bulgaria has provided information showing that it has taken measures to ensure compliance with the decision by the Court of Justice of the EU from 2017, as well as with the country’s obligations under European legislation regarding the agglomerations Sofia, Plovdiv, North, Southwest, and Southeast. Bulgaria points out that there is a sustainable and permanent tendency for a constant reduction of the number of instances of exceeding the average daily norm for fine particulate matter (PM10), as well as the achievement of this result on the territory of more municipalities. Data on the average annual norm of PM10 are available and prove that it has been observed in 2020 in the agglomerations Sofia, North, Southwest, and Southeast.

The considerable improvement in air quality in the recent years in terms of PM10 in all areas and agglomerations in the country testifies to the fact that Bulgaria has been applying effective measures to ensure that the period of exceeding the ceiling values ​​is reduced as much as possible.

In the course of the court proceedings, Bulgaria will plead with the Court to reject the initial legal claim as inadmissible, respectively unfounded, as well as to reject the request by the EC for imposition of sanctions. In case these requests are not met by the Court, Bulgaria will insist that the Court determines a minimum amount for the imposed periodic sanctions to partially address the request by the EC in respect to the non-compliance with the average daily norms.