AOBR declaration: Let's stop the green racket!

STOP THE GREEN RACKET!

The main priority of the Association of Bulgarian employers' organizations is to create and maintain a good business climate. A good business climate by definition implies a balance of interests of all participants. In the last ten years, there has been an obvious imbalance, which is starting to turn from unhealthy to deadly for the Bulgarian economy.

It is about the disproportionate influence of a handful of "environmentalists" who, in the name of their vague interests, stop any more significant investment intention. They are ready to stop, and are currently successfully doing so, investment intentions for hundreds of millions, which would lead to serious economic growth and Bulgaria's gradual exit from the category of "the poorest country in Europe". Transport infrastructure is stopped, mining is stopped, the construction of sports and technical facilities is stopped. All this is done in clear violations of the law, suggestions, misinformation and manipulation of public opinion.

It is no longer just about skiing, a second lift, winter tourism, but about Bulgaria's economy as a whole. Sectors such as metallurgy, mining and geological work, construction, transport, tourism (summer and winter) are subjected to racketeering, which becomes a systemic risk for our country and ourselves.

Referendums like the one in Trun or in the Dobruja municipality of General Toshevo cannot "decide" the fate of Bulgaria's economy. This is the place to appeal to those politicians who are trying to get on top of the referendums that this is playing with fire. The double standard is not a solution - if Trun is a true solution, then tomorrow in Bansko there will be not two, but twelve, and why not twenty new lifts.

We turn to the institutions entrusted with the governance of the state by the Constitution, and call on them:

• To continue the legislative policy against the "green racket", successfully started with the changes in the Environmental Law, with the single-instance appeal of the EIA covering not only the sites of national importance, but also class "A" investments and sites of primary municipal importance;
• To continue investments in ski tourism and in the construction of a second lift in Bansko in the spirit of the decision of the Council of Ministers of December 28, 2017;
• To unclog the "lungs" of Vitosha and give it air, and for this purpose the new plan for the management of Vitosha Nature Park should be urgently adopted.
• To prepare and implement in a legislative order clear, precise, measurable and verifiable criteria for the representativeness of environmental organizations - such as the law has imposed for the representativeness of Bulgarian employers' organizations and workers' organizations.

Let us put the rule of law above all else - as it is in the European Union, which we have the honor of presiding over at the moment.

The declaration was signed by the chairmen of KRIB, BSK, BTPP and AIKB.