Serbia should pay compensation for ecological damage caused by a large oil spill along the Danube river in Bulgaria and Romania this week, Bulgaria s environment minister said on Sunday. Bulgaria and Romania have blamed Serbia for the spill, which flowed downstream to where the Danube runs between them, creating a series of slicks that, at its worst point, was 140 km (90 miles) long and 100-150 metres wide.

"Serbia will have to pay Bulgaria compensation for polluting the Danube river in accordance with the Danube convention," Bulgaria s Environment Minister Dzhevdet Chakarov told Bulgarian national radio.

Earlier this week, Belgrade said a small spill was controlled from a plant of Serbian oil company NIS in Prahovo, near its border with Bulgaria, but that the leak was not big enough to cause the huge slick. Romania also complained in a letter from its environment minister, Sulfina Barbu, to Serbias Farm Ministry, complaining that Serbian authorities failed to warn it about the spill.

Both Bulgaria and Romania took measures this week to prevent the oil from reaching their shores, but said the oil could hurt wildlife in the fragile Danube delta and hurt farmers who depend on the river for irrigation. Bulgarias Chakarov called for a tripartite commission to be formed with representatives from Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia, to estimate the damage. "Bulgaria has the right to demand compensation according to international ecological law," said Chakarov. "It wont be correct for our taxpayers to be burdened with something which they didnt cause."
(Planet Ark, 09/10/2006)