site.btaParliament Removes Second-Instance Appeal of Environment Impact Assessment for Major Investment Projects

Sofia, July 27 (BTA) - Parliament voted on principle Thursday to scrap the second-instance appeal of environmental impact assessment for investment projects of national significance. The revisions to the Environment Protection Act were moved by the ruling GERB party.

Parliament resolved that the court will have six months from the filing of an application to review it. The court decision shall be announced within a month from the court sitting.

Pending cases shall be handled by the rules effective prior to the new revisions.

During the debate, the chair of the parliamentary legal committee Danail Kirilov proposed that the one-instance appeal rule should also be made applicable to projects of strategic importance included in the energy strategy until 2020 and in the transport strategy until 2030. This called for an extraordinary sitting of the legal committee to consider the proposal.

Despite the support from the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, Parliament voted down a proposal by the United Patriots to broaden even more the scope of projects where the environment impact assessment shall be appealable only at a court of first instance, to include major municipal projects or projects which have an A grade according to the Investment Promotion Act.

The Socialists called for preserving the two-instance appeal procedure. Filip Popov MP said it is inadmissible to reduce the appeal options for important strategic projects. He added that it also encourages corruption.

The revisions to the Environment Protection Act were slammed by environmental organizations and they threatened to alert the competent EU institutions about the situation. At a news conference in the BTA National Press Club, Toma Belev of the For the Nature association of environmental organizations said that the law should be amended to include provisions to make sure all people - not just some - have access to fast and effective justice.

For the Nature argued that no other EU country has a single-instance appeal process and insisted that the revisions to the Environment Protection Act should be delayed to allow time for discussion with the broadest possible scope of stake holders.

They want the same for proposed revisions to the Administrative Procedure Code which peg the legal fee for appealing investment projects to the value of the project. This will result to a huge increase of legal fees for appealing large projects.

The environmentalists argue that the revisions to the Administrative Procedure Code aim to deprive people of their right to control the processes and to react to injustices.

Belev said that the changes to the two laws are part of a single process of taking away rights from citizens.

Katerina Rakovska of WWF urged the MPs not to adopt conclusively the revisions to the Environment Protection Act. She said that they don't speed up justice: they eliminate it.

If the revisions pass conclusively, the environmental organizations will ask the President to veto them and alert all competent EU institutions.