It turns out there’s a multi-million business behind the obstacles green organizations continue to create regarding the construction of the final stretch of the Struma Motorway.
Volumes have been written about this particularly “problematic” section of the Class I road I-1 (E-79), as well as the relentless stream of complaints and legal actions by green activists that have continued for over 20 years.
The latest such action occurred in the summer of last year, when the NGO “Balkani Wildlife Society” challenged the decision of the Ministry of Environment and Water (MOEW), which on June 11, 2024, had given the green light for the motorway to pass through the Kresna Gorge.
In December 2024, a five-member panel of the Supreme Administrative Court finally upheld a previous ruling by a three-member panel of the same court, confirming the MOEW’s decision to allow preliminary execution of the project for the section from Kresna to Sofia. With this final ruling, the Supreme Administrative Court dismissed as unfounded the complaints filed by the Bulgarian Parks Association, led by Toma Belev, and by the Balkani Wildlife Society, chaired by Andrey Kovachev, which aimed to halt construction of the Struma Motorway through the gorge.
Moreover, in that same month, the Standing Committee of the Bern Convention rejected—for the ninth consecutive time—the demands of the Bulgarian green NGOs, often dubbed the „green octopus“, to stop the motorway project through the Kresna Gorge.
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