site.btaMotion to Up Limit for Firewood Purchase Rejected in Legislature

Bulgaria's National Assembly on late Friday night rejected a motion by the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF), modified by the parliamentary Agriculture Committee, that would have increased by 60% the amount of firewood that a household may purchase from state or municipal-owned forests per year, from 10 spatial cubic metres to 10 solid cubic metres.

The 98 votes in favour came from GERB, the MRF and two MPs of Continue the Change, and as many voted against (from Continue the Change, Vazrazhdane and There Is Such a People).

The MRF argued that this quantity is too little for winter heating of people living at altitudes above 1,100 m. 

Vazrazhdane commented that by this legal revision the MRF are trying to bribe their voters for the local elections due this coming autumn.

Another amendment to the Forests Act, moved by the MRF and voted down by the majority, would have exempted people harvesting firewood on their own from holding a licence to handle a power saw.