"We are working on the Ruse case, we have made commitments and now I am reaffirming them," Environment Minister Julian Popov said in Ruse. He visited the city on January 8 for the second time in four months. Popov is the first Environment Minister to meet with the citizens of Ruse to inform them about the actions taken by the team of the Ministry of Environment and Water to solve the problem with air quality in the city.

The main reason for the numerous signals submitted to RIEW-Ruse is the unpleasant smell that citizens sense. To solve the problem of odours, Minister Popov set up a working group under the leadership of Deputy Minister of Environment and Water Reneta Koleva. It includes experts from several institutions and they are currently analysing the research experience in different countries, whereby they should be ready with this task by 1 March.

"There is no unified internationally accepted approach to the problem of odours. There is no European legislation or standards in this direction.  Each country solves it differently, and somewhere it is solved at the regional level," Minister Popov explained. On the basis of the specific approaches and proposals in this analysis, changes in the regulatory framework will be initiated. Minister Popov expressed confidence that legislation will be adopted by the end of the year to regulate odours from production facilities.

At the meeting, which lasted almost three hours, Minister Popov and his team answered dozens of questions and listened to the opinion of each participant who took the floor. Among the topics discussed was the problem of frequently exceeded standards of fine particulate matter in the city. Participants in the meeting raised the sensitive topic for the citizens of Ruse - the project for the construction of an incinerator for hospital waste in Giurgiu, Romania. Minister Popov informed the citizens that the MOEW is involved in a cross-border environmental impact assessment procedure for this project. Already two negative reports have been returned to Romania. A public hearing has also been requested in Bulgaria.

At the end of the meeting with the citizens, Minister Popov committed:

• To carry out a comprehensive inspection of the sources of air pollution in Ruse.
• To initiate and prepare together with other national and local institutions an analysis of the health status of the population of Ruse.
• To redirect to the responsible institutions reports of violations that were presented at the meeting, but are not within the competence of MOEW - after being sent in writing to the Ministry.
• To continue the dialogue with Ruse citizens after the meeting on 8 January.

Solving the problems with the air quality in Ruse through the joint work of local and state institutions were the focus of the meetings of Minister Julian Popov and Deputy Ministers Petar Dimitrov and Reneta Koleva. They talked with the Mayor of Ruse Pencho Milkov, the Chairman of the Municipal Council Acad. Hristo Beloev and a group of municipal councillors, as well as with the governor of the city Danail Kovachev. Minister Popov's team also visited the production site of the Linamar plant, where they met with the company's management. The topic of the discussion was the company's actions to ensure environmentally friendly production.