Employees of Bulgaria's Port Varna Stage Protest

Workers at Bulgaria's largest Black Sea port, Port Varna, will stage a new protest Thursday to oppose a project for converting a large portion of the port to pedestrian use. Photo by BGNES

Workers at Bulgaria's largest Black Sea port, Port Varna, will stage a new protest Thursday to oppose a project for converting a large portion of the port to pedestrian use.

Under the scheme, which is part of the General Spatial Development Plan, the area is to be used for the expansion of the pedestrian zone near the Varna Naval Station.

The project, which has been set in motion, envisages berths 1-3 of Port Varna Iztok (Varna East) to be freed up to become city area for sports and recreation, according to reports of the Focus news agency.

The project will cost the state-owned port operator BGN 1 M, which will be deducted from the mandatory investments which will be reported to the state-owned port infrastructure, owner of the site

The workers say that the implementation of the project will reduce the workload of the port , which will affect their jobs and salaries,a s well as the entire transport industry in Bulgaria.

Port Varna employees also say that the change of statute of berths 1-3 is the first step of a plan to drain the company of resources and make it easy to privatize.

The first protest against the project was held Wednesday afternoon.

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