Bulgaria's "Greens" party has demanded the resignation of the Minister of Environment, Nona Karadzhova, and her Deputy, Evdokiya Maneva.

About 30 environmentalists have gathered in Sofia to protest against the permission from the Ministry of Environment for construction of new ski facilities in the Pirin National Park.

According to the protesters, the facilities have been constructed by an off shore company, whose owners are unknown but it's public bodies were the same as another off shore company, Vitosha Ski, which is responsible for the ski area in Bulgaria's Vitosha mountain.

"These are companies that have received millions from unauthorized state funding from the previous cabinet," Andrey Kovachev, Co-Chair of the Greens, said and added that the current government is supporting the same companies.

He pointed out that the ski facilities violate the UNESCO Convention concerning the protection of world cultural and natural heritage and put the Bulgarian national park in the list of endangered sites.

Following the environmentalists' previous protest, the Director of the Pirin National Park, Georgi Grancharov, resigned and was dismissed from the Ministry of Environment over concern he was unfit to manage the protection of the park.

The Wednesday's protest was under the slogan "One fuse is not enough – let's remove the damaged switchboard."

The protesters have prepared an improvised switchboard with four fuses. One of the was blown and the other three were working. Under them were the names of Karadzhova, Maneva and the Director of the National Office for Nature Conservation, Mihail Mihaylov.

The environmentalists have stated they would use all legal forms to remind every week about the permissions that have been given for the construction of ski facilities. They also said that if authorities do not cancel these permissions, the Greens would submit claims to the European Commission.

According to Kovachev, the claim would lead to a stop of the EU funding for the whole region.

"If they are so irresponsible to allow breaching of the EU law, because this is what they do, then they should take the responsibility when the EU funding is stopped and they should not say that it is our fault," Kovachev said.

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