European rivers on RED alert: the VEZ Svoghe case, Bulgaria, 30 November 2021

More than half of European rivers are on red alert – failing to reach good health as required until 2015 by the Water Framework Directive. Yet in parallel, the Renewable Energy Directive (RED) has enabled numerous harmful hydropower projects to be counted as renewable energy and in many cases to benefit from renewable energy incentives as well – even when they have breached EU law...

The VEZ Svoghe project on the Iskar River just north of Sofia, has already led to serious environmental and social impacts, which show the need to explicitly link the RED with requirements for compliance with EU environmental law. With five out of nine originally planned hydropower plants built, fish migration has been obstructed and part of the Vrachanski Balkan Nature Park has been flooded...