site.btaPresident Imposes Veto on Black Sea Coast Development Act

ESD 18:46:31 24-06-2019
LN1845ES.122
122 - ECONOMY - LEGISLATION - BLACK SEA - PRESIDENT - VETO

President Imposes Veto
on Black Sea Coast
Development Act


Sofia, June 24 (BTA) - President Rumen Radev Monday imposed a veto on controversial revisions to the Black Sea Coast Development Act, his Press Secretariat said. The veto comes amid protests against what some see as new restrictions for nature-loving vacationing and a failure to protect the coast against over-development.

The President says in his reasoning that he does not intend to oppose lawmakers' attempt to introduce rules and standards as stated by Article 55 of the Constitution proclaiming the fundamental right to a healthy and favourable environment.

According to the President, however, the rules for "wild camping" are becoming increasingly restrictive with the introduction of a number of new limitations.

The revision concerning "wild campaign" was tabled between the two readings of the bill, without public consultation.

The President also says that while the law put in place restrictions for "wild camping" on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast, it fails to say where camping is allowed.

"In addition to restrictive rules, the revisions provide for strict sanctions for non-compliance. As there is no clarity about the capacity of sites where tents, trailers and campers can be put up, it cannot be said definitively that the revisions provide for the best way to achieve the desired result: protection and reproduction of environment. There seems to be an imbalance between strict sanctions for the people and lack of strict control and due care by the State," the President's Office said.

The presidential veto was hailed by a group of activists for clean nature and nature-friendly vacationing, which calls itself Betonomorie - roughly translating as Sea of Cement.

Last week they officially asked the President to veto the controversial revisions and he said he would consider.

Betonomorie also have on their side the Bulgarian Camper Society which has lobbied National Ombudsman Maya Manolova and she promised to refer to the Constitutional Court the revisions to the Black Sea Coast Development Act.

Having held protests against the revisions for a week now in the Sofia square locked between the headquarters of the government, President and Parliament, Betonomorie wrote in a Facebook post that the veto is "the first result of the efforts of the civil society in Bulgaria to safeguard people's constitutional rights and protect the coast from further disfigurement". BR/LN/