In the second half of the 20th c. the lignite coal basin in the valley of Maritza river by the city of Stara Zagora in Southern Bulgaria used to be one of the very highly polluted areas on the old continent. The main reason for this was the high content of sulphur in the coal, otherwise easy to dig. The thermo-power stations working on the coal used to pollute the air with harmful emissions and dust. Since the end of the 1990s new technologies have been introduced and things grew better. The strict EU requirements have been and will continue to impact positively to this end. All the more strange is the attitude of the Italian giant ENEL, the new owner of the latest power plant, “Maritza-Iztok” 3, which has not been meeting the EU requirements in many respects. The residents of the nearby town of Galabovo threaten to address the Italian media. They are indignant for they feel they are treated as citizens of a second-class country.