Right of Reply – Italians: We Deliver Waste to Bulgarian TPP; Energy Mogul’s TPPs: We Burn Waste Legally, It Is Eco-Friendly Mind the horns!

Following Bivol’s publication of Bivol, “Italian Smugglers Deliver Waste for Bulgarian Energy Mogul“, our editorial office received a number of rebuttals and opinions that we publish in their entirety in Bulgarian as a right of reply of the concerned parties.

The texts essentially acknowledge the facts presented in our publication. The Italian company Ecoexport admits that it imports trash for TPP Bobov Dol associated with Kovachki. The heating utilities admit that they are already burning trash experimentally (Brickel) or plan to do it (in Sliven and Pernik). According to them, it is environmentally friendly and healthy for people. The tone of the Sliven heating utility and Brickel is firmer in addressing journalists in general and our media in particular. “Stop belittling our business,” the Sliven utility urges. “In our view, no one, much less a journalist, who is hardly an energy expert, should question the competence of the authorities that have given us official authorization for waste utilization,” it adds.

Trash Universe also uses a similar vocabulary: “In our opinion, it is not correct and right for the media or individuals to question the decisions of institutions whose main activity and responsibility is to observe the legislation of the Republic of Bulgaria in relation to the issuance of any type of permit that is within their competence.”

Trash Universe also denies receiving waste from the Italian companies Ecovalsabbia and Ecoexport, but there is no such statement in our publication.

Trash Universe further resents its name been associated by us with the company Min Invest, at whose site tons of mink carcasses are buried, therefore denying any connection with the case.

However, Trash Universe’s letter has a curious feature. The metadata of the file, which had been created in Microsoft Word, includes the name of Nadezhda Arsova. She has been Hristo Kovachki’s secretary, as a former member pf the political party Leader, associated with Kovachki, and later renamed to BDC, has told 24 Hours daily.
Currently, Arsova is manager or owner of a number of companies linked to the businessman, among them companies related to TPP Bobov Dol. She is the sole owner of Grand Energy Distribution, which alone has won BGN 27 million through public procurement alone. Even the National Assembly (Parliament) is among its clients. The fact that Arsova authors the correspondence of Trash Universe, which formally has nothing to do with Hristo Kovachki, speaks volumes and adds another element to the connectivity between waste storage and processing companies, heating utilities and electricity traders, controlled by the businessman.

Italians: We deliver waste to Bobov Dol TPP with permission from the Ministry

For the first time, Sergio Gozza, owner of the Italian companies Ecovalsabbia and Ecoexport, reacted to a media publication. To date, the companies have declined to comment on questions from, both, Italian colleagues of IRPI, who have published the investigation into waste trafficking by Gozza and on our questions.

Sergio Gozza admits that he supplies waste to the Bobov Dol TPP, which is not mentioned in our article. He also states that the last delivery was in June 2019 with permission by the Ministry, dated March 29, 2019. It is not clear what volumes have been delivered so far, and the MOEWs refuses to answer our questions.

According to Gozza, it is wrong to speak of polluting waste or harmful environmental activity, as the control authorities had not found any discrepancies regarding the exact composition intended for use as fuel.

Nevertheless, precisely because of false documents about the contents of waste sent to Germany, Italian prosecutors have investigated Gozza and 15 others, but the case has been terminated due to a statute of limitation, as stated in our article and in Ecoexport’s right of reply.

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