Southern Bulgarian Cities Win Crown for Eco-Friendliness

Rosen Plevneliev, Bulgaria's president-elect (L), and Nona Karadzhova, Environment Minister (C), at 2011 Greenest Cities award ceremony Tuesday. Photo by BGNES

Southern Bulgarian Black Sea city of Burgas won the country's award for greenest city Tuesday.

Burgas (pop. 208,000), Bulgaria's fourth-largest city, won the prize in the category for cities above 200,000 people at a ceremony hosted by Bulgaria's Minister of Environment Nona Karadzhova.

In the next three population categories, cities in Southern Bulgaria also took the crown, with Stara Zagora winning the award in the pop. 100-200,000 category, Haskovo in the 30-100,000 category, and Velingrad in the 10-30,000 category.

The only representative of Northern Bulgaria among the awarded towns is central northern Bulgaria's Lyaskovets, which got the prize for the pop. 3-10,000 category, followed by another southern town, Pavel Banya for towns under 3,000 citizens.

Bulgarian president-elect Rosen Plevneliev presented Burgas with the award for largest and greenest city in Bulgaria, arguing that Bulgarian society should foster a high envirnomental consciousness, and vowing to support environmentally friendly policies during his term in office 2012-7.

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