Varna Court Overturns Suspension of EIA for Lozenets Wind Farm.

The Varna Administrative Court annulled a decision by the director of the Regional Inspectorate for Environment and Water (RIEW) – Varna, which had suspended the administrative proceedings for the environmental impact assessment (EIA) for the construction of the Lozenets wind farm in Krushari Municipality. Under the court ruling, the case file is returned to the environmental inspectorate for the immediate continuation of the procedure.

The environmental inspectorate had suspended the EIA procedure on the grounds that another case was pending before the Dobrich Administrative Court, which RIEW Varna considered to have preliminary relevance to the EIA. The Varna Administrative Court rejected this argument, finding that there was no such dependency between the two proceedings. The proceedings were initiated following an appeal by the investor, EE Lozenets EOOD, against the actions of RIEW Varna.

The case before the Dobrich Administrative Court was initiated against a decision of the Krushari Municipal Council from the end of February, by which the local council had attempted to revoke its previous decision granting permission for the preparation of a detailed development plan for the project properties. In its reasoning, the Varna court stated that, under the Administrative Procedure Code, the filing of an appeal against the decision of the Krushari Municipal Council automatically suspends its implementation.

The ruling may be appealed by private appeal before the Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) within seven days of its notification to the parties.