Bulb instead of Christmas cards



The time is coming when the old bulbs will not be available in the EU market. Let us help them finish sooner in the museum. Instead of Christmas cards make an energy saving light bulb as a gift - so you send a message to friends and family that they should save energy. This will combine a small gift with a great message and will help accelerate the switch to energy efficient lighting.

I already tried this with my friends last Christmas - no one was shocked - even the most conservative of my folks, so go ahead. A nice X-mas card nowadays costs about 5 BGN (appr. EUR 2.50) and a good energy saving bulbs around 6.50-8.00 BGN (EUR 3.30-4.00) Well, you can't send the bulb by mail but be creative.

Note: Do not be enticed by the cheapest energy saving bulbs with unpleasant to the eyes white light - they won't make your friends very happy. Choose only bulbs with soft yellow light or hybrid (soft white) light. Ask about that in the store and ask the seller to demonstrate you the light bulb.

Thanks to everyone who will support the campaign!

Genady Kondarev

Who's to blame in European Commission for the delay on the complaints about destroying the Bulgarian nature?

Today a letter was submitted in the EC Representative Office in Sofia, Bulgaria. It is addressed to the European Ombudsman and the Commission of its own and it's a complaint. This complaint ends with a disturbingly long list of scandalous cases of destruction and outrages against some of the most valuable pieces of wild nature in Bulgaria. So? - You are going to say – Europe is a clumsy machine anyway... it takes a while before it starts stirring. Yes, but No. The mentioned cases have long ago wend over any administrative deadline for response or any average time for a complaint to be worked on. And we are talking about a catastrophe here in Bulgaria.



As it became clear after the visit of our Petitioners in Brussels (see previous articles), things are indeed quite fishy. And all the traces lead up towards one Bulgarian expert in The Commission – Lubomila Popova – whose name is been articulated for months on the issue with the delayed responses and the very uniform answers if any are given. Things like “We need more evidence.” (like pictures, plans and documents from companies, State and municipalities are not enough and are a fiction of the environmentalists) or just demanding more and more useless details that only provide the investors with more time for their anyway quick reaction. Even worse – the case of Irakli was closed down and then reopened by the Commission after the protests and the renewed complaints of the environmentalists. The advice of the European Parliament towards our petitioners have been just the same – to write immediately to the European Ombudsman and the Commission.

And that's what we did – today Andrey Kovachev from The Greens submitted the consecutive complaint to the Representative Office – and this time we know it won't remain without reaction. And so that we don't get blamed for becoming boring paper guys Dobri, Gaby, Ivo and I again entertained the journalists and the policemen present. I hope you're all gonna like the pictures!

And the moral of the story: Well the lesson is actually a tendency – We keep on relying on the European Institutions but we ever more begin to rely on ourselves. Bulgaria has to find inner strength to overcome the mafiocracy. Because as I often say – Brussels is not Moscow and can't enter Sofia with the tanks to set the rules.

Genady

A LAST DANCE OF THE NATURA 2000 SUPPORTERS WITH THE BULGARIAN COUNCIL OF MINISTERS – A LOT OF MEDIA AND NO MINISTERS AT ALL

After more than a year of absence from the square in front of the Bulgarian Council of Ministers the citizens who support the Natura 2000 network in Bulgaria decided to knock on the doors of The Realm Of The Unrestricted Power and to remind that the problems surrounding the implementation of the European environmental network in Bulgaria are not only unsolved but become even worse. The event had to bring in the focus of the public attention the hearing that takes place today between the Petitions Committee by the European Parliament and citizens who have brought in petitions on the violations of the European environmental legislation in Bulgaria. Vera Petkanchin from Citizens for Rila, Andrey Kovachev from Balkani Wildlife Society and Nelly Arabadzhieva from Green Balkans have the mission to trigger accelerated procedures against these violations and against the insufficiency of the Natura 2000 network, that still does not include valuable zones like Rila Buffer and parts of Irkakli wild beach. The discussion will include also the scandalous cases like Kaliakra, Kamchiiiski pyasatsi and Strandzha.

As they were not allowed to protest in front of the Council of Ministers, the citizens did not unfold any posters but only played their last dance in front of the cameras and microphones of the media letting them know what this circus was all about. Unfortunately no ministers did enter the building through the main entrance during their presence. The citizens were also very curious about why the ministers are trying to ban such a peaceful events to happen in front of their sight with the new project of law for the meetings and protests, that will restrict any protests in the range of the building of the state administration and the national roads.

“Well, it was surely going to be interesting to get to know how people like us are endangering them and why they depriving us from our basic civil rights. What they cause themselves with this new law is only a series of illegal according to their standard protests and ever more creative events organized by us. Bulgaria is a free country and they should rethink if the criminals are the people who stand on the streets to attract their attention on certain problems or if the criminals are the governors themselves. The implementations of such measures without public discussion is a symptom of dictatorship,” stated the protesters.

The tree of Natura 2000 was planted in front of the Representaive Office of the European Commission today

A tree was planted today by the enthusiastic citizens who supported the European Environmental network in 2007 by protesting in front of the Council of Ministers in Sofia, Bulgaria for nine months, using artistic meanings to remind the Bulgarian minsters that they have to work urgently on the approval of Natura 2000. The tree lived in a pot for almost two years waiting for the entire range of the network to be approved by the ministers but as this did not happen so far the concerns for it's comfort in the pot grew larger and the environmentalists decided to gift it as a mascot to the European Commission Representative office in Bulgaria.

“This we do as thanksgiving to the European institutions who are our main foreign partner in the effort to implement some common sense in the national environmental legislation and the control over the proper observance of this laws.”, say environmentalists.


Replanting the tree happens just a day before a group of petitioners will have a hearing on the severe violations over the European environmental laws in Bulgaria – including serious insufficiency of the environmental network, abuse with power from the national authorities, illegal overbuilding in Natura 2000 and numerous counterfeited documents and illegal approvals from state institutions. Andrey Kovachev from Bakans Wildlife Society, Vera Petkanchin – from Citizens for Rila and Nelly Arabdzhieva – from Green Balkans will represent the petitioner on the hearing in the European Parliament on 30 april 2009.


Hopefully their mission will accelerate the triggering of procedures against the violations. The situation in Bulgaria is very worrying and the illegal investors together with the politicians in the country believe that their business plans will be long finished before any counter reaction comes from Europe and the only chance is that this plans go wrong thanks to the numerous missions from environmental NGOs and the pressure from green MEPs in EP.