The Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) has finally rejected the appeals of the Association of Parks in Bulgaria and the Balkans Wildlife Association, giving the green light for the construction of the Struma Motorway in the section passing through the Kresna Defia. The decision of the five-member panel of the court became a fact days after the Standing Committee of the Bern Convention rejected the claims of Bulgarian environmental organizations against the project for the ninth time. The two decisions open the possibility of starting the construction of the last and most difficult section of the highway and come against the backdrop of Bulgaria’s entry into Schengen and the abolition of the borders between Bulgaria and Greece.

In practice, the SAC’s decision creates the conditions for the Struma Motorway to be completed in the problematic section with two routes on the western slopes of Pirin. Over the years, environmentalists have insisted on the construction of two 16-kilometer tunnels, proposed by a Swiss company and previously estimated at around 3 billion euros. In addition to its high cost, this idea was also rejected due to the high risk associated with seismic activity in the region, which is most vulnerable to earthquakes in the Balkans.

The decision taken by the Supreme Court of Justice puts an end to the more than 20-year-long attempts by environmental organizations to block the project to complete the Struma Highway. The project was supposed to be implemented in 2004 for the Olympic Games in Athens. During this period, 76 people died in the Kresna Gorge and over 400 were injured due to the lack of a safe road.