Pirin

Environmentalists are coming out tonight in an 8th protest against building a second lift in Bansko, the BNR reported. They insist on changing the Pirin National Park management plan.

Protests in support of Pirin National Park continue. 

 Runners from 10 of the cities which protest will run over 440 km.

Today's protest is expected to involve people over 20 cities from Bulgaria and abroad.

Skiers are unwittingly contributing to the destruction of one of Europe's last wildernesses, home to brown bears, grey wolves and the lesser spotted eagle, according to a conservation charity.

Roadmap for developing the mountain sustainably outlined

Environmentalists conduct a symbolic action in front of the building of the Council of Ministers. They give a jar of fresh air from Pirin to the prime minister and the ministers. With this symbolic gift, they will formally remind their requests to cancel the government's decision to change the Pirin Park management plan.

Thousands gathered for the fifth consecutive protest in defense of the Pirin Nature Park in Sofia tonight. The protest procession went from Nezavisimost Square to the Council of Ministers building and continued to Orlov Bridge.

Climber Boyan Petrov will submit to the MOEW an amended version of the decision of the Council of Ministers of 28 December on the management plan for Pirin National Park. It will explicitly state that only the construction of a second cableway in Bansko is allowed.

...: Protests Mark the Opening of Bulgaria's EU PresidencyAs Bulgarian and European officials were making speeches at the opening ceremony for Bulgaria's first EU Presidency in Sofia on Thursday evening, outside, thousands of people took to the streets to protest a controversial development plan in the UNESCO-protected Pirin national park.

Air cleanness is a problem not only for Bulgaria but also for the whole European Union and for the world at large. This is what the Commissioner for the Environment, Karmenu Vella, told the Bulgarian National Television.

"In Europe every year 400,000 people die prematurely because of the dirty air," he said.

Several thousands people took the streets of Bulgarian capital of Sofia, with hundreds more protesting in nine more cities across the country, after the government decision to allow constructions at the Pirin National Park.

Chanting "Mafia" and "Resignation" the protesters have blocked the Eagles' Bridge in central Sofia.