site.btaParliament Rejects Temporary Committee to Review Water Agreements with Greece on the Arda and Mesta Rivers

The National Assembly on Thursday rejected a draft resolution to form a temporary committee tasked with reviewing the implementation of agreements with Greece on the use of water from the cross-border Arda and Mesta rivers, as well as the related rights and obligations between the two countries. The proposal was voted down with 65 MPs in favour, 62 against, and 64 abstentions.

Vazrazhdane MPs Petar Petrov and Angel Slavchev tabled the motion. They pointed out that the term of a 1964 treaty on resolving financial matters and developing economic cooperation between the People’s Republic of Bulgaria and the Kingdom of Greece expired on July 9, 2024. Under this agreement, Bulgaria must deliver regulated water from the Arda River for 60 years, amounting to 186 million cubic metres annually at 85% reliability, for irrigating land in Greek territory.

During the debates, Petrov called on fellow MPs to establish the committee so it could provide guidelines for the executive branch in renegotiating the treaty. “We do not know what negotiations are currently underway on the Bulgarian side. The temporary committee would formulate the questions that help protect Bulgaria’s national interest when supplying water from the Arda and Mesta rivers,” he said.

MP Krassimir Manov from Morality, Unity, Honour (MECh) said their group would back the proposal. Tsoncho Ganev from Vazrazhdane remarked that what Bulgaria is providing to Greece translates into lost benefits in terms of power generation, irrigation, and drinking water. His colleague Georgi Georgiev noted the many villages in Ivaylovgrad Municipality that face a lack of water supply, including Kondovo, Zhelezino, Plevun, Pokrovan, Belopolyane, Svirachi, Poposko, Cherni Rid, Gugutka, Kamilski Dol, and Huhla, while Konnitsi, Pashkul, and Rozino have no water supply network at all.

Mladen Shishkov from GERB-UDF addressed Vazrazhdane MPs, observing that the Arda Cascade is used exclusively for energy and irrigation. “If a new agreement with Greece is concluded, it will naturally be a commercial arrangement. I see no purpose in creating this committee,” Shishkov said, adding, “We just spent another two hours on pointless talk.”