November 22 (BTA) - Bulgaria accelerated the process of recultivating municipal landfills within projects financed under Operational Programme Environment 2014-2020 and with resources of the Enterprise for Management of Environmental Protection Activities, the Environment and Water Ministry said in a press release on Monday.

In 2015, the EU Court of Justice ruled that Bulgaria had not taken the necessary measures to ensure that all landfills comply with the Landfill Directive. Although Bulgaria ensured that all the 113 substandard landfills covered by the judgement stopped accepting waste at the end of 2017, 43 of these sites for non-hazardous waste remained to be fully closed and rehabilitated.

In July 2021, Bulgaria was notified that the matter will be referred to the EU Court of Justice for penalties to be imposed.

The Environment Ministry blames the "irresponsible governance in the last five years" for the failure to recultivate the 43 landfills in question. Following the increased efforts of the Ministry's current management, the technical recultivation of 28 out of the 43 landfills was completed by the end of September 2021, which will reduce the penalties to be imposed on Bulgaria, the Ministry said.

Since October 2021 four more landfills have been recultivated, increasing the overall number of recultivated landfills since May 2021 to a total of 32. The recultivation of another six is expected to be completed by the end of 2021, the Environment Ministry added.