November 26, 2010
Europe

Bulgaria wants to keep wind farms inside Natura 2000 conservation network

sofiaecho.com 26 November 2010

Bulgaria has no plans to get rid of wind farms that were built within the Natura 2000 Network of protected species habitat sites in breach of EU regulations, and has approached the European Commission (EC) on the issue, Deputy Environment Minister Evdokia Maneva said on November 25 2010.

The government will seek to deal with the violations by implementing other measures or adding other sites to the ecological conservation network in order to protect biodiversity, Maneva told members of Parliament’s committee on the economy.

The EC has launched two infringement procedures against Bulgaria, the one concerning the construction of a dozen wind generators in the Kaliakra zone without the necessary ecological assessments. The second is related to the country’s incorrect policy towards Natura 2000 in disregarding the overall impact of building a large number of investment projects at a particular site.

The discussion in Parliament followed a prolonged conflict between conservation activists and renewable energy investors in northeastern Bulgaria, in particular the northern Black Sea coast.

Because the area is a bird migration corridor, the site will be probably determined as a risk point in the national renewable energy plan by 2020, Nikolay Nedyalkov, head of Natura 2000 department at the ministry, said.

Risk areas will signal future investors that their green power projects would not be allowed or would be subject to large-scale revisions, he said.

Source: Dnevnik.bg

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2010/11/26/bulgaria-wants-to-keep-wind-farms-inside-natura-2000-conservation-network/