„Democratic Bulgaria“ proposes changes to the Clean Air Act, which would introduce clearer rules for the placement, inspection and modification of the stations of the national air quality monitoring system.
The proposals were submitted between the first and second votes of the draft law of the Council of Ministers for amending and supplementing the law. It was adopted on the first vote by the National Assembly on September 9, 2026.
According to the deputies of the SB, the stations must provide data both on the places with the highest concentrations of pollutants and on the levels representative of the exposure of the population as a whole.
The explanatory memorandum proposes that the instruction for determining the location of the stations, through which the impact of motor vehicles on the quality of ambient air is established, be publicly available and be applied when selecting the relevant locations.
The SB insists that each measuring station has a public justification for why it is located there. According to the parliamentary group, the network is currently determined by order of the Minister of Environment and Water, without sufficiently clear criteria in the law, public argumentation and public discussion.
Data from the national network are the basis for municipal air quality programs and for Bulgaria's reporting to the European Commission. In the plenary hall, the deputy from the Bulgarian National Assembly Dimitar Naydenov pointed out that the current regulation requires that the choice of location for each station be documented, but this documentation is not public.
Among the proposals is that the network of stations be reviewed every five years after a public discussion. It is also envisaged that a station that has recorded exceedances cannot be closed or moved without public justification.
“To solve this problem, we propose that each measuring station should have a publicly available justification as to why it is in this exact location, that the network should be reviewed every five years, after public discussion, and that a station that has shown exceedances should not be quietly closed or moved“, commented MP Chilo Popov.It is also proposed that in the case of documented exceedances established through municipal or civil measurements with an equivalent method, the Executive Environmental Agency should carry out a check with a reference method within a period of up to six months.
The proposals will be discussed within the framework of the procedure for the second vote of the bill. The main draft of the Council of Ministers is mainly aimed at the implementation of European rules on fluorinated greenhouse gases and substances that deplete the ozone layer, but also includes changes related to the implementation of the law on atmospheric air.