site.btaFishermen Threaten to Protest unless Offshore Wind Parks Bill Is Withdrawn

Unless the bill on building offshore wind parks in the Black Sea is withdrawn, fishermen will stage a protest, it emerged at a news conference here on Monday.

Kosta Stoyanov MP of Vazrazhdane told the media that he expects the protests to be supported by the tourism industry and other stakeholders. The final position of the sector will be clear after a roundtable discussion in Sofia on Tuesday.

The bill in question, tabled by MPs of GERB-UDF, Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria, and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, was passed by Parliament on first reading on January 25.

If offshore wind parks are built in the sea, the fisheries industry will be ruined, Stoyanov commented. He specified that Bulgaria's fisheries sector employs between 6,000 and 8,000 people at 2,000 fishing vessels, 60 fish-processing enterprises and 24 mussels farms.

The MP said that because the bill was submitted by a group of lawmakers, it was laid before the legislature without public consultation. Stoyanov was adamant that the draft legislation must be withdrawn before its second reading.

Stoyanov added that the movers did not consult the Institute of Fisheries and Aquaculture in Plovdiv and the Institute of Oceanology in Varna and the mayors of coastal municipalities. He said further that the European Court of Auditors has found that in its acts on the building of offshore wind parks, the European Commission has ignored the possible risks posed by their expansion to marine ecosystems.

Chernomorski Izgrev Fishermen's Association Chair Emil Milev told the news conference that the company that can potentially invest in the construction of offshore wind parks had said at a meeting that there are plans for three farms with 260 m turbines on a total area of 98 sq km off the Northern Bulgarian Black Sea coast. "In practice, these companies want to usurp 20% of the Bulgarian maritime space," Milev pointed out.