Bulgaria, unhappy about the EU cutting its 2008-12 carbon emissions quota by 37 percent, will not seek a total review of the plan but accuses Brussels of ignoring key factors, the environment minister said yesterday.
Dzhevdet Chakarov said the European Commission had put the new EU member state in an unfavorable position by missing factors such the enforced closure of its nuclear reactors, which had increased its need to emit greenhouse gases.
He said Bulgaria was still waiting for the Commission’s response after Sofia presented demands for changes last month and he confirmed the country’s intention to take the European Union’s executive to court if it failed to make amendments. “We are not seeking a total review of the plan, we have not requested that,” the minister told Reuters in an interview. “We submitted our arguments, they (the Commission) also don’t rule out the option of having made technical mistakes. I hope that we will find common ground and reach an objective, correct decision. If we do not reach the desired outcome, we will take legal action.”
Chakarov argues that Brussels did not take into account that the closure of two 440-megawatt nuclear reactors last year, a condition of EU membership, had stepped up coal-based power production, nor that 2005 flooding had put pressure on hydro-power plants.
The Commission also did not taken into account planned installation of sulfur-cleansing facilities at heavy industry plants which would reduce pollution, nor had it calculated the country’s accelerating economic growth, he said. “We have very serious and justified concerns that the economic growth would be threatened. From a seller of CO2 limits, our country would turn into a buyer and that would have a negative impact on industry and growth,” he said.