site.btaBulgaria at EU Environment Council

At the last meeting of the EU Environment Council for 2023 here on Monday, Bulgaria was represented by a delegation headed by Environment and Water Minister Julian Popov, Popov's Ministry said in a press release.

Ministers held a policy debate on a proposal for the first-ever EU soil health law. Bulgaria welcomed the proposal for setting up a monitoring framework and creating conditions for sustainable soil management and restoration of contaminated sites. "The future monitoring framework will contribute significantly to halting degradation processes and will encourage scientific and industrial research to help analyze tendencies in drought and disaster management and resilience against these phenomena," Popov emphasized.

During the meeting, the Environment Minister briefed his colleagues on a high-level event held at the Bulgarian pavilion of COP28 in Dubai, co-organized by the Bulgarian Government and UNICEF and dedicated to youth and climate action. Popov highlighted the UNICEF Declaration on Children, Youth and Climate Action and governments' role in promoting children's inalienable right to a healthy environment and the need to take steps for including these rights in the implementation of the Paris Agreement. The Minister called on EU Member States which have not yet acceded to the Declaration to do so.

EU environment ministers also discussed a Commission proposal to establish an integrated EU-wide forest monitoring system. Bulgaria stressed the importance of forests and forest ecosystems for addressing environmental challenges while, at the same time, showing understanding of the need to increase forest sustainability.