In 1997 the General Roads Administration (GRA later on called Roads Executive Agency) initiated a study for a construction of the Struoma motorway in South - Western Bulgaria as part of the Trans European Corridor No 4. The primary route was planned to pass through the whole length of the Kresna gorge - an area of outstanding nature worth, designated as CORINE site and future NATURA 2000 site.

In the period 1998 - 1999 the GRA prepared several EIA reports of the project for motorway construction, later rejected by the Ministry of environment and water (MEW).

In 1999 and 2001 the Ministry of Environment and Waters (MEW) sent letters to the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works and the General Roads Administration with concrete requests for the detailed assessment of the realistic alternative routes of the Struma motorway outside the Kresna gorge.

Through financial memoranda '98 and '99 the Bulgarian government received funding through the PHARE program for the design and feasibility study of the motorway.

In April 2000, the Bulgarian Government contracted the Italian Company SPEA Ingegneria Europea, for the feasibility study and technical planning of the Struma and Lyulin motorways. The contract was financed by the PHARE - Cross Border Co-operation Programme. In addition, the Bulgarian government intended to apply for financial support for the construction works to European Union programmes (ISPA) and the European Investment Bank.

In November 2000 the draft of the EIA report prepared by SPEA Ingegneria Europea was rejected by the MEW due to significant missings.

Three meetings of all stakeholders (Road Executive Agency, Ministry of Reginal Development and Public Work, PHARE, SPEA Ingegneria Europea, Ministry of Environmet and Waters, Delegation of European Commision in Sofia and NGOs) were held in November 2000 in Sofia. The Head of the PHARE Programm - Mrs. Vesselina Ljubenova stated that Terms of Reference of the firm SPEA would be changed and would include development of alternatives outside Kresna CORINE site.

Three days after the last meeting, on the November 20th 2000 SPEA came with two "alternatives", consisting of two drawings of road tracks on the map. They were presented to NGOs by Mr. Ritzo in an informal meeting held in the office of SPEA Ingegneria Europea. The time invested for this was 2 days only!

A Preliminary EIA Report for the Struma motorway prepared by SPEA was presented to the MEW on January 11th 2001. The infromation about the alternatives outside the gorge comprises of 3 maps and 4 pages of text from the hundreds of pages of technical documentation prepared by SPEA. The report rejected these alternatives as according to these two pages they were very expensive and have bigger negative effect than those through the gorge.
The screening of the DG Environment showed that the EIA report is not sufficient. After that the Bulgarian MEW returned the report with a letter from 26 January 2001 for not complying with the existing legislation and vagueness in the expert conclusions.

On the September 13th 2001 came an answer from Margot Wallstrom, Commissioner of the European Commission, to the letter of Bulgarian NGOs from 19th of July 2001. Besides all it said: : "Following the evaluation of the first version of the EIA for the section of the Sofia-Kulata motorway that includes the area of the Kresna gorge, the Commision has asked the Bulgarian authorities to revise the document in order to align it with the requirements of the EIA directives. In particular, the Commission has specifically indicated that alternative solutions to the one that passes through the Kresna gorge, whether as a new motorway or as an extension of the present road, have to be thoroughly and seriosly studied. In particular, this is necessary in order to comply with the requirements of the Habitat and Birds directives, which apply when an EIA for environmentally sensitive areas has to be completed."

In October 2001 a group of NGOs submitted a proposal for the designation of the Kresna gorge as a protecetd area. The proposal was accompanied by complete documentation in line with the Bulgarian Protected Areas Act and the results from a correspondence with the MEW in spring 2001, when the MEW officially approved the concept for the designation of a protected area around the gorge.

In December 2001 the EIA report of the project was compelted and proceeded to the MEW. The Ministry started immediately the EIA procedure despite the fact that there was a pending proposal for the designation of the Kresna gorge as a protected area. The EIA report was prepared by SPEA Ingegneria and funded through the PHARE program. The quality of the report, especially in some chapters as biodiversity, is exteremly poor. The report does not comply with the EU legislation (both the Birds and Habitats Directives, and Directives related to air quality) and to the international agreements ratified by Bulgaria (in particular the Bern convention). The technical reports prepared by SPEA, on which the EIA assessment was based, consisted of the same few pages infromation about the alternatives outside the gorge - 3 maps and 4 pages of text out of hundreds of pages of the whole technical documentation.

The public hearings, part of the EIA procedure, were carried out in the period 05. 03. - 07. 03. 2002. They could be evaluated as weak and unobjective, with insufficient preliminary distribution of information to the local community and poor participation of local people. Present were mainly representatives of the local authorities, ministries and the EIA preparation team so that practically there is no feedback obtained from the local community.

Starting from 1997 until now there has been a continuous NGO campaign against the construction of the motorway through the Kresna gorge and for the development of acceptable alternative routs outside the CORINE site. The campaign has included activities for raising awareness on all levels - from local community to the Bulgarian government, searching for the support of the European Commission, the European parliament and the international NGOs. Until the year 2002 the requirements for the detailed assessment of the alternatives outside the Kresna gorge were not included in the Terms of Reference of SPEA Ingegneria Europea, thus no alteranitves were designed and assessed.