The latest twist in a long running saga between Bulgarian ski resort developers, the Bulgarian government, the EU and environmental campaigners has seen Bulgaria’s Minister of the Environment saying she will take steps to legalise the expansion of Bansko ski resort on to national park land, rather than tell the resort it must remove the illegal construction.

Bansko has been one of the big success stories of European ski resort development of the past decade, but for most of that time environmental campaigners have sought to highlight that part of the expansion has taken place on national park land, supposedly protected from development and part of a UNESCO world heritage site.

At one time the EC threatened to take action against Bulgaria over the illegal development and UNESCO status was threatened with withdrawal.  Polls of Bulgarians also found that most opposed the development which is many cases was carried out by foreign firms and fuelled by property investment from Western Europeans.

Over the years various Bulgarian ministers have made apparently contradictory and often inconclusive announcements on the issue but the latest statement by the Environment Minister does say that Bansko built ski lifts and pistes illegally on 250 acres of national park / UNESCO World Heritage site land.

The environment ministry surprised journalists and environmental groups by saying there was nothing that could be done about the development and that asking Bansko to remove the lifts would upset the country’s Ministries of the Economy and of Sport and be against the national interest.  Instead she said the government would legislate to make the illegal development retrospectively legal.

Veronica notes “Finally they have admitted that Bansko did build illegally – which makes one part clear.   Making it legal retrospectively could make a dangerous precedent – though could make it easier for the government to manage the resort more tightly from now on.   Sadly, removing any lifts won’t bring back the centuries old forest that was destroyed.   I still feel that the EU should maintain their actions over the boundaries of the UNESCO site and their fines at such a level to prevent such a tragedy happening again.”