Due to 3 years of carelessness and inaction of the government of Boyko Borissov, the European Commission imposes property sanctions against Bulgaria for dirty air. In this way, Bulgarians will pay 3 times – once for clean air measures, once for medicines for diseases caused by polluted air and once again property sanctions in thousands of euros per day. This was commented by the chairwoman of the Civic Platform „Stand Up.BG“ Maya Manolova in front of journalists at a protest with gas masks in front of the Council of Ministers today. The demonstration today was organized by Manolova and activists of „Stand Up.BG“ and is entitled „Let’s remove the fine dust particles from power.“
In recent weeks, Bulgaria has been a „black champion“ in the world and in Europe in terms of mortality from COVID-19 and air pollution. It is unlikely that Fandakova and Borisov will cope with the dirty air, so our appeal is to remove the fine dust particles from power, led by Borisov and Fandakova, added Manolova.
She reminded that in the election campaign for mayor of Sofia Yordanka Fandakova made a number of promises for measures for cleaner air, but none of them is a fact. 20,000 stoves had to be replaced, but so far only 5,500 applications have been submitted. There are no car-oriented measures other than tax increases. The only thing that happened in Sofia was the public procurement for BGN 8 million for filters – 2000 filters for BGN 4000 each. This is a scam with no effect, because the filters stop when clothes and plastic burn.
They promised to control the illegal burning of garbage, but everyone sees smoke from the houses in the ghettos, Manolova said. She stressed that the problem is not only in the capital city, but also in Ruse, Vratsa, Peshtera, Blagoevgrad, Trakia district in Plovdiv, Smolyan. In Vratsa, Peshtera, Shumen and Devnya they are fighting against garbage incineration plants, in Veliko Tarnovo, Ruse, Burgas and Blagoevgrad they are fighting against industrial pollutants, said Manolova and added that RIEW totally neglects the problems with dirty air and have become servants of the Ministry of Environment and the economically strong.
„Stand Up.BG“ wants to change the legislation so that low-calorie coal and wet wood are not burned, so that there is no energy aid for solid fuels. They are threatening to restrict the import of waste from third countries, tighten the waste storage regime and impose a total ban on the creation of new waste incineration plants.
They will also insist on a penal fund in which the polluting municipalities, the polluting companies and the state pay for not providing clean air measures. The funds imported by the violators should be used for the replacement of solid fuel appliances, for the purchase of mobile stations for real measurement of air pollution and the purchase of air purifiers for children’s institutions, she added.
