This memorandum is public, anyone can look at it and see what it contains. Legally it is absolutely non-binding. This was said in the program "Face to Face" on BTV by the Acting Minister of Environment and Water, Yulian Popov, regarding the agreement on cooperation between the Ministry of Environment and Water and the "National Agency for Control of Protected Areas", related to the deaths in the "Petrohan" case.
I do not want to blame anyone for concluding this memorandum, but it did not go through the ministry's administration properly. When it becomes clear that there is one, an inspection begins and the administration does its job magnificently. The inspection found that there was no transfer of powers in it, Popov said.
Rositsa Karamfilova started a procedure to terminate it. Then these people came to me, Ivaylo Ivanov came. He wanted the entire agreement to be renewed - I told him that there was no way. He said that they wanted to protect the forest and other things. He said that they were members of an international organization of rangers. I told him that there was no legal basis for signing this memorandum and that was the end of the whole thing. After that, the administration managed to terminate this agreement, the Minister of Environment pointed out.
The ministry should refrain from signing memoranda with non-governmental organizations, there are other ways of interacting. The non-governmental sector not only benefits the state, but in some cases it does a better job than the state. All attempts to impose severe restrictions on non-governmental organizations are totally unfounded, they are attacks on civil society and democracy in our country. In recent years, we have constantly witnessed such attacks and we must clearly oppose them. This is an attempt to revive some totalitarian memories in our country. We must not allow this, emphasized Yulian Popov.
I express my condolences to the relatives of the deceased (in the case of "Petrokhan" – ed.) The way in which we as a society argued about this case is shocking. We as a society ruined these people. We need to step back a little. I want to address those who use the case for their own purposes – behave a little more dignified – a tragedy cannot be used to accumulate likes. A wave is being created on Facebook, which is extremely unworthy, Popov commented.
In response to a question in Italy's investigation into waste trafficking to Bulgaria, he specified that the Bulgarian authorities are expecting information from their Italian colleagues on the case.
In his words, the water crisis in our country is the result of the incompetent management of the water and sanitation companies.
Bulgaria is a country that is poor in water resources, but has enough water resources to have stable irrigation, factory production and domestic consumption. There is no reason for there to be a water crisis of the type we are seeing. Having losses of over 80-90% is absolutely unacceptable with these huge European funds that are being thrown away, said the acting Minister of Environment and Water.