Constitutional Court initiates a case on the law changes for agrophotovoltaics

The Constitutional Court initiated a case in relation to the request of President Rumen Radev asking the court to declare amendments to the Agricultural Land Conservation Act as unconstitutional. The head of state disagrees with the new rules for placing renewable energy installations on arable land.

The subject of the request is to establish the unconstitutionality of the provisions of Article 2, paragraph 4, in the part "and for agrophotovoltaics - under the conditions and in the order determined by a regulation of the Minister of Agriculture and the Minister of Regional Development and Public Works", Article 17a, paragraph 3, in the part "of sites for the production of energy from renewable sources", Art. 23, par. 3 and Art. 24 para. 7, in the part "or construction of a site for the production of energy from renewable sources" of the Law on the Conservation of Agricultural Land (SG 35 of 24 April 1996; amended and supplemented by SG 86 of 13 October.2023).

The President refers the new rules on the construction of renewable energy plants on arable land to the Constitutional court

Changes to the Agricultural Land Conservation Act were enacted through changes to the Renewable Energy Act, part of the laws under the Recovery and Resilience Plan. The Renewable Energy Act was promulgated in the State Gazette last week.

According to the Head of State, the changes contradict the provision of Article 21 of the Constitution of the Republic of Bulgaria, according to which land is the primary national wealth and arable land is used only for agricultural purposes.