By its decision on Constitutional Case No. 12 of 2018, The Constitutional Court (CC) has declared unconstitutional the provision of Art. 99 (13) (former paragraph 12) of the Environmental Protection Act. It provided a fee for litigating a decision of the Administrative Court enacted under The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) amounting to 0.8% of the identifiable interest in the case, but not more than BGN 1 700; in case of material interest over BGN 10 000 000, not more than BGN 4,500. After the annulment of the provision, the state fee for such proceedings for citizens and sole traders will be BGN 70 and for all other organizations, such as NGOs or commercial companies - BGN 370.
According to the Constitutional Court, the fee, which is calculated according to a determined material interest, gives an unclear and significant financial limit for access to the Supreme Administrative Court (SAC). The value of an investment proposal cannot be an environmental impact assessment criterion insofar as it is not part of the required information the contracting authority is required to provide at the start of the EIA procedure. Adoption of this value as an "identifiable material interest" on the basis of which the cassation appeal fee is calculated in such proceedings creates uncertainty among potential applicants as to its size, which could be increased by the contracting authority in a way that would prevent the submission of a complaint by the party concerned. The right of access to justice consists not only in the formal right of a person to lodge complaints but also in the real possibility of exercising that right.
