Following the decision of the Sofia Municipal Council to increase parking prices and expand the scope of the “blue“ and “green“ zones, citizen dissatisfaction is growing. The lack of public discussion, doubts about illegal currency conversion “lev = euro“ and accusations that the municipality will spend millions before the final court decision, led to a complaint being filed in the Administrative Court. Maya Manolova, leader of “Stand Up BG“, speaks to FACTI.
– Ms. Manolova, today you filed a complaint against the “blue“ and “green“ zones. What made you do it? How many people contacted you because there are petitions organized in Sofia?
– For the “blue“ and “green“ zones, as well as for expanding the scope of the zones, taken in defiance and stubbornness, without asking the capital's residents, numerous legal provisions have been violated. We filed a complaint signed by 46 complainants, but in reality the support for this court appeal is enormous. We also applied petitions and signatures, which were signed by 3,539 people.
– In what time frame do you expect the court to conclude this case — positively or negatively? Just to have a decision…
– We asked the court to suspend the preliminary implementation of the decision, respectively the ordinance on changes in parking in the capital, by highlighting numerous arguments. The main one among them is that the Sofia Municipality is about to spend 11 million leva to implement the new rules. These 11 million leva will be for signs with the new prices, for marking parking spaces in the expanded zones and other accompanying events.
That is, if the changes in the ordinance are canceled, it will turn out that these 11 million leva have already been spent.
In addition, we also justified ourselves with the damage that will be caused to the residents of Sofia - both material due to the higher fees, and moral, because people are dissatisfied that the decision was made over their heads, without complying with the requirements for broad public discussion.
– A person lives in a "green" zone, but works in a "blue" zone. Do they have to pay twice?
– Yes, they have to pay twice, and the fees have been increased many times over. In addition, the fact that they live in a green zone and have an annual vignette sticker does not mean that they have a parking space or that they can park at all. There are people who simply pay without being provided with a space.
This is a service where you pay, but you get nothing in return.
The limitation of the duration of the "blue" zone also creates serious problems for people who work in the center, have small children or other daily commitments. One person complained that this would force him to work four-hour shifts because he would not be able to cope.
– In some of the new zones, the streets have even been dug up. What is happening there?
– Yes, they showed me streets in “Poduyane“, “Suha Reka“ - unpaved, sunk in mud and puddles. It is unclear how the parking spaces will be marked out there. You can't not invest money in infrastructure, lighting, pothole rehabilitation, building parking lots and expect people to applaud. This is simply picking into the pockets of Sofia residents without getting anything in return.
– Companies are afraid of being fined because of the Euro law, and the Sofia Municipality simply equalized the lev and the euro?
– That's right. We presented numerous legal arguments in the complaint. First of all - violations of the procedure: lack of public discussion, lack of financial justification. There is no analysis of the economic reasons for the increase in price, the cost of the service.
The Center for Urban Mobility (CUM) collects about 40 million leva per year - 600 million for the last 15 years. It is not clear where this money is.
The last parking lot for 150 spaces in “Nadezhda“ costs 1 million leva. If they had been invested, there would be no problem with parking.
– You claim that there is also a violation of the law on the euro?
– Yes. In practice, the Sofia Municipality converts “1 lev = 1 euro“. “Green“ zone - lev for euro, “blue“ - 2 leva for 2 euros, and all other payments are in this ratio.
This is all that the state authorities are fighting against.
It is not normal for the state to sanction traders for incorrect currency conversion, but for the largest municipality to do it. This is outright speculation. In the sense of the Euro Law, the Sofia Municipality becomes the first officially named and exposed speculator.
I expect the institutions to react - the CPC can suspend the implementation and stop the price increase. But since it is not clear whether they will do it, and whether they will gather the courage, we have filed an appeal and want the decision to be suspended. After that, we have all the arguments for the court to cancel it.
– There are no more paper coupons. Is this a problem?
– Yes. Removing paper coupons is a big problem. And this is because the elderly and those without mobile phones will not be able to pay. Payment by SMS further increases the already high fee - the new 4 leva per hour in the “blue” zone, because the money flow goes through the mobile operators. And they will profit from this.