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Romania, Bulgaria Green Parties urge Ponta Gov't to oppose shale gas drilling

The Romanian and Bulgarian Green Parties urge the Victor Ponta Government to oppose shale gas drilling and take into account this damages the environment and they stress such operation has been stopped in Bulgaria by its Parliament as early as since this January.

Romanian Green Party leader Antonio Momoc and Bulgarian Zelenite Party co-chairman Borislav Sandov told a joint news conference on Monday that the Bulgarian civil society stands by the side of the locals from Barlad (eastern Romania), Constanta and Vama Veche (southeastern Romania), where there are plans to begin extracting shale gas and they said they are ready to back the Romanian NGOs, by the experience they gained, in order to persuade the Romanian lawmakers not to approve such extraction.

'Our major argument before the politicians of Bulgaria for voting for such a draft law, which does not allow such type of exploitation, was the drilling uses large water quantities, affects the farmland by contamination and drives fractures in the ground that can lead to earthquakes', Sandov explained.

He said the civil society persuaded the politicians after six-month-long protests and campaigns before the Bulgarian authorities on this topic. A number of 52,000 signatures were collected against shale gas drilling and 10,000 people staged a demonstration in Sofia. 'It was an example of the Bulgarian citizens' rallying their forces to protect the environment', the Bulgarian party leader said.

Momoc, in turn, stressed the Romanians too must try to stop shale gas extraction, since it is an environmental issue that affects the resources of the entire country.

'Our neighbours south of the Danube have managed to impose the Sofia-based Parliament a moratorium on such devastating practice. The civil society in Barlad and Constanta called the Bulgarian Green Party to support them by expertise and documents. If the Government plans to carry out such extraction, it should organise public debates with our Bulgarian neighbours and the local population. /.../ We have an obligation to get the environmental approval from our neighbours too. After such success scored by the Bulgarians, we want the Ponta Government to also keep its promise and to not allow opening such drilling', he said.

'If the Government fails to listen to the civil society, the only solution will be the street protests. We do not want to turn such actions into political issues, but we underscore that agriculture, food, the people's health are hit', the Romanian Green Party leader stressed.

 

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