Bulgaria’s Environment Minister: Shale Gas Moratorium Will Remain in Place

Environment | November 9, 2014, Sunday // 12:34|  views

Ivelina Vasileva, Minister of Environment and Water, photo by the Bulgarian National Radio

Bulgaria’s new Environment Minister, Ivelina Vasileva, has vowed to keep the 2012 moratorium on the exploration and production of shale gas through hydraulic fracturing.


In a Sunday interview for bTV, Vasileva insisted that the authorities would not allow illegal and uncontrolled construction.
She pledged clearly mapped protected areas on the Black Sea coast.


Vasileva, as cited by Sega daily, listed a number of priority tasks for the Environment Ministry, including the announcement of protected areas by habitats, which had to be completed by end-2014, following an EU Directive, as well as the approval of special dune maps, and the provision of support to Bulgarian municipalities for the preparation of detailed spatial development plans.


She reminded that the controversial ordinance of a regional environmental inspectorate, which had given the green light to construction works in the Karadere area on the Black Sea coast without an environmental impact assessment (EIA), had been revoked, and the prosecuting authority had been informed that the detailed spatial development plan of the site had been approved in 2005 without an EIA.

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Tags: Environment Minister, shale gas exploration, moratorium, hydraulic fracturing, illegal construction, Karadere, Black Sea coast, environmental impact assessment

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