NGOs ask Commission to Step in as Bulgaria Threatens Access to Justice

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.

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...