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COMMISSION OF PETITIONS AND COMPLAINTS AT EUROPEAN GOVERNMENT
BULGARIAN PRIME MINISTER
COPY TO: JOURNALISTS AND DEPUTIES

Dear Ladies and Gentleman,

As a rightful citizen of The Republic of Bulgaria and The European Union I consider my duty to observe the obeying of the laws and the conservation of nature resources of our country and the European Community. In the last few years Bulgarian’s nature has been exposed to serious pressure from investors, which threatens to harm the beauty of our country and deprive us of a main economical resource - tourism. It is a very dangerous precedent with infraction of Bulgarian and European laws.

A series of ruthless violations of the law are causing irreversible consequences on Bulgarian nature, one of which is the official start on July 4th, 2009 of the ski lift from lodge “Pionerska” to lodge “Rilski ezera”, built on an active landslide in National Park Rila. For me, as a citizen of a country, member of the EU, the opening and the ongoing work of an illegal ski lift, which has not gone through any procedures of assessing the effects on the environment and also threatens tourist’s health, is absolutely unallowable. Even more, the use of the ski lift by children beforе undergoing technical tests and completion of the procedure of accepting this machinery is also unresponsible.

The ski lift is part of the winter resort project “Panichishte – Ezerata – Kabul” which was voted against by 170 000 Bulgarian and Europian citizens and has a procedure filed in the Committee of petitions and complaints at the European government. Completion of this project is a violation of Bulgarian and European environmental and other legislation and threatens the unique wild nature of one of Bulgaria’s symbols – The Seven Rila Lakes. The complaint about Rila at The General Administration Environment in The European Commission is filed under the number of UAD/2008/A/7720.

I appeal to you to undertake urgent actions regarding the control and obeying of the European and Bulgarian legislations regarding the rights and guaranties of the citizens, who are threatened from the illegal ski lift, built from lodge “Pionerska” to lodge “Rilski ezera” in National Park Rila. I insist on taking measures for saving National Park Rila and the areas drafted in “Natura 2000 Rila” and “Rila Buffer” from building ski resorts, lifts and tracks. I insist on control over the actions of Bulgarian state departments. I insist on stopping and removing the illegal ski lift and the area affected to be restored at the expenses of the individuals responsible.