Bulgaria approves law to ban GMO crops

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Groups blast veiled decision-making at European Commission as mining industry revels in rejection of crucial Parliamentary resolution

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Greenpeace and Romanian Activists in Nikopol against Belene and Cernavoda NPPs

Source: Greenpeace
Yesterday a group of 25 young Romanians and seven Romanian journalists, amongst whom a crew of the national Romanian TV was refused crossing the Danube from Turnu Magurele while wanting to visit a Greenpeace event in Nikopol, North Bulgaria.

The journalists and young people were not allowed to cross the border and board a Greenpeace inflatable, until they could show EUR 250 per person to the border police for a two hour visit to the Greenpeace exhibition on Climate Change and the action ship SV “Anna”, which was docked in the Nikopol port. Even a guarantee from Greenpeace to cover all the costs involved for the two hour stay could not change the opinion of the Romanian border police.

Only after the journalists had left, the remaining youth received permission to go without this requirement, which is meant to prevent Romanians from leaving the country for longer time without enough money to maintain themselves.

The SV “Anna” and Greenpeace were visiting Nikopol in the framework of the Energy Revolution Tour 2005, in which they draw attention to the dangers of climate change and nuclear energy and propose alternatives for Central European energy policies. The tour features an exhibition and practical examples of energy efficiency and renewable energy. When the young Romanians finally were allowed access to Bulgaria, they discussed the effects of climate change and nuclear energy for their generation with Greenpeace experts.

Two accompanying activists from the Romanian environmental organization Terra Mileniul III discussed with Greenpeace and Bulgarian NGOs strategies to address the problems around the nuclear power stations in Belene (Bulgaria) and Cernavoda (Romania).

Ionut Apostolu from Tera Mileniul III commented: “For the young people in our group this was a day to never forget. The positive approach to problems that Greenpeace showed with the exhibition and the ship stands in strong contrast to the negative inflexibility of the Romanian border controls”.

Albena Simeonova, Greenpeace spokes person for the Energy Revolution Tour said: “When seeing the discussion between our Bulgarian young volunteers and these Romanian youth, it becomes clear to me that our two countries do have a bright future ahead. They were discussing together the ways to get away from dirty nuclear and fossil energies towards efficiency and renewable because they realized that their own future is at stake.”

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