March 7 (SeeNews) - The European Commission urged Bulgaria on Thursday to correctly enact EU rules regarding management of waste from extractive industries, marine waters protection, spatial information sharing and Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA).
Bulgarian law is currently failing to reflect the provisions of the Extractive Waste Directive, which stipulate that the country should ensure that information on safety measures and the action required in the event of an accident related to extractive waste is reviewed and updated every 3 years, the European Commission said in a monthly infringements package.
The country must also include in its national legislation provisions that reflect its obligation to provide the public with information on the waste facility permits and their application as it becomes available.
Regarding marine waters, Bulgaria has failed to meet the October 15, 2018 deadline for submitting a reviewed and updated assessment of the environmental status of the waters concerned, the environmental impact of human activities, their determination of good environmental status and their environmental targets.
Bulgaria has also failed to share spatial information, as required by the Directive establishing an Infrastructure for Spatial Information. The directive aims to create a Europe-wide set of spatial data to facilitate EU environmental policy and activities that have an impact on the environment, to be shared with citizens and public-sector organisations, the Commission said.
In addition, the country needs to bring its EIA legislation in line with new EU rules.
"In Bulgaria, certain elements regarding screening decisions, Environmental Impact Assessment reports and information to the public do not adequately reflect EU standards, and the monitoring of projects with significant adverse effects falls short of requirements," the Commission said.