Bulgaria will not be fined by the EU for dirty air
Source：Economic Bg
From：Taiwan Trade Center, Sofia
Update Time：2023/04/15
The European Court of Justice rejected the claim of the European Commission against Bulgaria because of air quality. In this way, the country will save more than BGN 11 million in fines, which it had to pay if it lost the case in Luxembourg.
The Supreme Court of the EU has ruled as inadmissible the claim of the European Commission against Bulgaria, with which it wants the country to be fined for not complying with the European standards for the cleanliness of the air", it is written in the reasons for the decision.
It is about the case filed before December 2020 by the EC against Bulgaria. The Commission then decided to bring a case before the Court of Justice of the EU against the country because it did not ensure full implementation of the Court's decision of 5 April 2017. In short: for three years it did nothing to fulfill its obligations to improve air quality.
In the decision of the European Court of Justice from 2017, it was found that Bulgaria has not fulfilled its obligations under the European legislation regarding the quality of atmospheric air. In particular, the country has systematically and consistently failed to comply with the limit values for fine particulate matter (PM10) and appropriate measures have not been taken to ensure that the period of exceedances is as short as possible.
After three years, the EC decided that the results achieved so far in the direction of cleaner air are unsatisfactory, because Bulgaria has not yet started to actually implement measures in places to ensure compliance with the maximum permissible values. The country then reported that most of the measures were in the preparatory phase or would not come into effect until 2024.
The European Commission wants Bulgaria to be fined EUR 3,156 for each day of delay from April 5, 2017 until the day of decision on the case, but the fine will not be less than EUR 653,000. This makes at least BGN 10 million. In addition, the Commission wanted Bulgaria to be sentenced to pay 5,677.20 euros per day if it does not solve the problem as for each of the areas with dirty air from the date of the decision until the year of full fulfillment of the obligations, it would cost about BGN 20 million more per year.
In its decision from today, the EU Court ruled that at the time of filing the claim, the European Commission had not fulfilled its obligation to prove that Bulgaria continues to not fulfill the requirements for air cleanliness according to the Clean Air Directive.
The court also says that "The Commission is obliged not only to verify during the entire pre-trial procedure and before the issuance of the official notification letter whether the judgment in question has not been implemented in the meantime, but also in this notification letter to allege and prima facie clearly establish , that the judgment will not yet have been executed at the reference date'.
This is just one of a total of 18 procedures that are being conducted against Bulgaria in the environment sector, in which our country significantly lags behind European norms.
Source: https://www.economic.bg/bg/a/view/bylgarija-njama-da-byde-globena-ot-es-zaradi-mrysnija-vyzduh