CHALLENGE FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE DO NOT SIGNIFICANTLY HARM PRINCIPLE IN THE EUROPEAN UNION FUNDED RAIL PROJECTS IN BULGARIA

Abstract

The European Green Deal has an overarching aim of making Europe climate neutral in 2050. The goal is to reduce EU's greenhouse gas emissions for 2030 to at least 50% and towards 55% compared with 1990 levels. Its goals extend to many different sectors, including construction, biodiversity, energy, transport and food and includes carbon tariffs for countries that don't curtail their greenhouse gas pollution at the same rate. On 18 June 2020, the Taxonomy Regulation for climate change mitigation and adaptation was published in the Official Journal. In December 2020 was adopted the new EU Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy, whereas its sustainable mobility element envisages an irreversible shift to zero-emission mobility by making all transport modes more sustainable. In February 2021 the EC issued technical guidance on the application of �do no significant harm� under the Recovery and Resilience Facility Regulation, and in September 2021 an explanatory note on the application of the principle under Cohesion Policy. The Recovery and Resiliency Facility Plan of Republic of Bulgaria was approved in April 2022 and Transport Connectivity Programme should be approved by the end of 2022 as well. This article discusses the challenges for the implementation of the EU guidance documents for the case of the EU co-funded rail sector projects in Bulgaria. In particular the identified cohesion policy projects are discussed and a particular project is analyzed. As a result some challenges and conclusions are formulated.