The country’s largest steel mill Kremikovtsi announced that it would invest EUR 312mn in environmental projects. The programme should be completed in 2011. However, the trade union in the plant as well as several environmentalist organisations have repeatedly warned that the statements coming from the still producer about technological upgrades and environment protection are false and manipulative. Kremikovtsi and state control bodies are even blamed for forging pollution indicators, which are anyway well above the targets set by EU and local institutions. A month ago, the European Commission requested information from the environment ministry on pollution parameters related to Kremikovtsi and also assigned own experts to evaluate the progress achieved by the company in meeting investment commitments set under Bulgaria’s accession treaty. As recalled, the ministry of environment has recently raised the monthly sanctions for Kremikovtsi, which is located near the capital city Sofia, following recent estimates that it is a much bigger polluter than all other industrial enterprises in the region taken together. In May, the steel producer announced plans to invest EUR 163mn in 97 projects for ecological improvement in the region in the next six years.