Bulgaria boasts one of the greatest biological diversities in Europe. With 26 % of all species identified in Europe, it is vital that the country preserves and protects its environmental resources, while continuing to grow the economy sustainably.
While Bulgarian legislation accurately reflects the EU’s environmental requirements, its implementation on the ground remains a challenge. Despite progress in adopting and implementing measures addressing air pollution, there is still cause for concern in some parts of the territory, with significant pollution-related deaths and people living in cities exposed to fine particulate matter.
Highlights
Bulgaria has made progress in implementing measures addressing air pollution.
Bulgaria has closed its substandard landfills.
Of the 96 Bulgarian bathing waters, 91 (94,8%) were of excellent quality. No bathing waters were found of sufficient or poor quality.
Main Challenges
Circular Economy
Overall, waste management continues to be a challenge. There is no progress on the ‘polluter pays’ principle since the 2017, 2019, and 2022 EIRs. Bulgaria has continued to postpone the application of a fairer calculation of waste collection fees, despite adopting the necessary legal basis several years ago.
Despite some progress made in recent years on municipal waste management, there are still some issues to address. Municipal waste incineration represents 3% of the total generated municipal waste that was incinerated in 2022. Bulgaria still relies strongly on landfilling even though the landfilling rate decreased significantly over the past 10 years.
Pollution
There is no significant progress in ensuring compliance with the urban wastewater requirements of EU law.
Nature and biodiversity
Bulgaria has significant scope to improve biodiversity and nature protection and restoration. Some Natura 2000 sites do not yet have specific conservation objectives, and conservation action on the ground is far from sufficient. Bulgaria needs to secure financially stable and operational management structures in charge of Natura 2000 sites, at both central and regional levels.
Governance and investment
The investment gap to meet Bulgaria’s environmental objectives is an estimated €2.4 billion (2.87% of GDP – higher than the EU average of 0.77%).
Bulgaria has taken steps to provide for streamlined environmental assessments by incorporating the appropriate assessment under the Habitats Directive, the integrated pollution prevention and control (IPPC) permitting process and the ‘Seveso’ process for chemical safety into its environmental impact assessment (EIA) procedures.