A coalition of green NGOs has
called on the European Commission to intervene in Bulgaria, after the country’s
ruling party announced a proposal that the environmentalists said would limit
access to justice by increasing costs.
Members of the centre-right
GERB party this summer submitted a number of proposals that will make changes
to Bulgaria’s Administrative Procedure Code (APC) and the Environmental
Protection Act (EPA).
If the amendments are
approved by the Bulgarian parliament’s plenary session in September, the fees
and costs of conducting certain administrative cases, including cases
concerning environmental impact assessments (EIAs), will increase.
Proposed changes to the EPA
would impose a six month limit on appeals against large-scale infrastructure
projects that are classified as being of "national importance”.
The coalition of a dozen
Bulgaria-based NGOs responded to the proposal by sending
a joint letter
to European Commissioners Karmenu
Vella, Corina Creţu and Věra Jourová.
The EU executive confirmed
that it had received the letter but declined to comment at this time, given
that it had not been informed about the proposed amendments before.
Pertinent data often takes
longer than six months to collect so that court decisions would not be based on
up-to-date information if the new proposal were approved. It would also be
solely up to the Bulgarian authorities to decide what projects would be granted
national importance status.
Sam Bright, a lawyer for
ClientEarth, a non-profit environmental law group, said the new rules "would
violate the right to a fair trial and to securing access to justice without
facing prohibitive costs”, adding that they breached EU law, international
conventions and the Bulgarian constitution.
The measures would also
grant only one shot at appeal when it comes to large-scale projects, increasing
the scrutiny on smaller projects.
One of the dozen NGOs, Za
Zemiata [For the Earth], warned that "these worrisome proposals are coming from
a country that is about to take charge of the EU presidency in a few months. In
these turbulent times, Bulgaria is steering in the wrong direction.”
In the letter to the
Commission, Za Zemiata also said the higher fees for cassation appeal would
breach the rules of the Aarhus Convention on access to justice and information.
Brussels recently accepted
a UN ruling that found the EU is in breach of the Convention, which requires
the general public to have access to environmental justice.
The Commission has
unsuccessfully tried to overturn the UN committee’s ruling, which was
eventually acknowledged by the European Council. The EU’s joint position will
be presented at the meeting of the Convention’s parties in Montenegro on 11
September.
(euractiv.com)