An expert group of the Union of Automobile Importers in Bulgaria will sum up the EU requirements for car exhaust and will move them to Parliament and Government so that they be introduced in the Bulgarian legislation, the head of the union Stefan Hadzinikolov announced. In his opinion, Bulgaria cannot make it into the EU without meeting the environmental and technical standards for vehicles. According to him, Bulgaria is last in Central and Eastern Europe with the number of new cars per capita. Only 13,365 new
cars were sold in this country last year. The old to new cars ratio is 9:1. The most sales were registered in 1994 (14,000 new cars) and car importers have been unable to beat this figure for seven years now. 5,292 cars were sold between January and the end of May 2002, or 140 more than last year. Over 1 million cars are falling apart as they move, according to the union’s statistics. Bulgaria is unique in Europe in not having any environmental requirements for the imported used cars. 120,000 used cars were imported last year, Hadzinikolov said.