site.btaEuropean Commission Freezes Infringement Case Against Bulgaria Over Landfills

European Commission Freezes Infringement Case Against Bulgaria Over Landfills

Brussels, December 16 (BTA) - The competent services of the European Commission (EC) have frozen the infringement case against Bulgaria over its landfills, because of the country's serious progress in this sphere, the Environment and Water Ministry said Wednesday.
 
Speaking to journalists in Brussels on Wednesday, Environment and Water Minister Ivelina Vassileva said that in 2015 Bulgaria made serious progress: 54 old landfills were closed, 37 were recultivated and the construction of 15 regional waste management systems was concluded. "In this way we managed to convince the EC not to proceed to the next phase of the case, which would mean serious fines for Bulgaria," she added. Vassileva was in Brussels for an Environment Council meeting on Wednesday.

The case against Bulgaria was launched over the country's failure to implement the EU's Landfill Directive, which stipulates that existing landfills may not continue to operate after July 16, 2009, unless they comply with EU legislation. This process is directly tied to the construction of new regional waste management systems, which are funded mainly under Operational Programme (OP) Environment 2007-2013. The delay in their building was due mostly to the discontinued payments under the OP  and the long judicial proceedings launched following appeals over the steps taken under the projects. After the EC restored the payments under OP Environment on November 19, 2014, Bulgaria managed to put into operation 13 new landfills and close 54 old ones in 2015. A total of 15 regional waste management systems were constructed under the OP that now service 70 municipalities and over 3.5 million citizens.

Vassileva told the media in Brussels that she would go back to Sofia with a second good piece of news: the EU Member States adopted a position favourable to Bulgaria on the new National Emission Ceilings Directive.

In 2015, Bulgaria's negotiations on this directive were exceptionally difficult because the text initially proposed by the EC envisaged unachievable values that would have caused difficulties for all economic sectors.

On Wednesday, the Environment Council approved a document which fully reflects the position defended by Bulgaria. "Negotiations will now be held with the European Parliament and we hope that it, too, will take into view our national position," Vassileva said.