SOFIA (Bulgaria), Feb 9 (SeeNews – The environment minister of Bulgaria said Wednesday that the country will seek additional funding from the EU in order to reduce air pollution.
Borislav Sandov, the Environment minister, will meet next week with the head the EU Commission’s directate in charge of air-quality measures to negotiate the provision 600 million leva ($350.7 million/306.8million euros) in EU support for the replacement of solid-fuel heating devices with sustainable alternatives. A video file was published on the website public television BNT.
Sandov noted that around 800 million levs will be allocated to Bulgarian air quality measures in the next programming period for EU’s operational program Environment.
Bulgaria was referred to the Court of Justice of the EU by the EU Commission in 2020 over its failure to follow a court ruling. This court ruling found that the country is not in compliance with the EU’s ambient-air quality legislation.
“In particular Bulgaria systematically and continually failed to comply with limit values for particulate material (PM10)” the Commission stated at the time. They also suggested that financial penalties could be imposed upon the court referral.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)