Today, the European Commission (EC) decided to close three criminal procedures against Bulgaria under the Circular Economy Package. These procedures are in the field of waste management and in particular related to the transposition in our national legislation of the European requirements under the Waste Framework Directive in relation to packaging waste, as well as specific waste from end-of-life vehicles, batteries, accumulators, electrical and electronic equipment.

The decisions by the Commission also state that Bulgaria did not establish a system for monitoring invasive alien species by 13 January 2018 and did not prepare and implement an action plan in this area by 13 July 2019. For these reasons, a new infringement procedure will be initiated against our country and 17 other EU member states - Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Croatia, Italy, Cyprus, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, and Slovakia.