Court overruled the changes to Pirin National Park Management Plan

A three-member panel of the Supreme Administrative Court annulled (by Decision 10238 / 27.07.18) the amendments to the Pirin National Park Management Plan adopted by the Council of Ministers by Decision 821 / 29.12.2017. Administrative Case No 3062/2018 was formed on the basis of complaints by two individuals, the World Wide Fund for Nature, the Danube - Carpathian Programme Bulgaria and the Association of Parks in Bulgaria.

According to the supreme judges, the provisions of the Environmental Protection Act (EPA) and the Biological Diversity Act (BDA) have been violated in the issuing of the appealed administrative act and no environmental assessment and environmental impact assessment has been carried out, such as the requirement for plans, programmes and investment proposals for construction, activities and technologies or their modifications or extensions, where significant environmental impacts are possible.

The three-member panel also considers that the administrative act is inconsistent with the main objective of the Protected Areas Act, namely: preservation and conservation of the protected territories as national and universal human wealth and property and as a special form of protection of the native nature contributing to the development of the culture and science and the well-being of society. In Art. 2, para. 2 of the Protected Areas Act explicitly provides that the protection of nature in the protected territories takes precedence over the other activities in them.

The decision of the three-member panel of the Supreme Administrative Court is subject to appeal within 14 days.