March 9 (SeeNews) - The Court of Justice of the European Union said on Thursday that the Bulgarian authorities should not have allowed the 1,620 MW coal-fired thermal power plant (TPP) Maritsa East 2 to operate, emitting sulphur dioxide above the EU permissible levels.
"[...] when considering a request for a derogation [...], the competent authority must [...] refrain from granting such a derogation when that derogation is capable of contributing to exceedance of the air quality standards [...] or being contrary to the measures included in the plan intended to ensure compliance with those standards," the judgement published on the court's website reads.
The court ruling was given at the request of environmental organisations Greenpeace Bulgaria and Za Zemiata, following a derogation granted by the Bulgarian government to the TPP in 2018.
Commenting on the ruling, Greenpeace Bulgaria said in a statement published on its website that the organisation expects the Bulgarian court to now review its decision taken in 2021, allowing the TPP to continue to operate in breach of environmental norms.
In 2020, the EU Commission referred Bulgaria to court over the country's failure to comply with a previous court ruling which found it in breach of the EU's ambient air quality legislation. In May 2022, the EU court ruled that Bulgaria contravened EU rules on air pollution in its failure to address sulphur dioxide pollution from coal plants.
Bulgaria has four large coal-fired power plants - Maritsa East 2, ContourGlobal Maritsa East 3, AES Galabovo and Bobov Dol. Those plants, with a total installed capacity of 4,119 MW, represented the largest share, or 31.7%, of total energy generation capacity in the country in 2021, according to the Electricity System Operator.
Last year, Maritsa East 2 reported a net profit of 762.1 million levs ($411.4 million/389.6 million euro) for January-November 2022 after a loss of 182.2 million levs in the same period of 2021.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)
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