site.btaGERB Calls for Draft Parliament Resolution on Recovery and Resilience Plan Reopening, Renegotiation of Maritsa Basin TPP’s Decommissioning

A draft resolution of the National Assembly should be tabled, thereby obliging the caretaker government to open the Recovery and Resilience Plan and to renegotiate the commitment to decommission the coal-fired plants in the Maritsa basin, GERB leader Boyko Borissov and MPs Temenuzhka Petkova, Delyan Dobrev and Zhecho Stankov said in a statement posted on Facebook on Thursday.

Now is the time for the trade unions to express their positions clearly and to support this resolution for reopening the Recovery and Resilience Plan by the end of the week, Borissov said. In his words, this is the "last chance" to save more than 4% of the country's GDP.

Petkova quoted an answer of caretaker Energy Minister Rossen Hristov during Question Time, revealing that the negotiations on the Recovery and Resilience Plan related to Bulgaria’s decarbonisation were led by Assen Vassilev, who at the time was deputy prime minister and minister of finance. In Petkova's words, the response of the caretaker minister indicated that no analysis had been made of the measure and how many and which coal-fired capacities should be phased out, and that there was no analysis of alternative technologies and the time needed for implementation.

It is very important now to preserve the power capacity in the Maritsa basin and begin the construction of new nuclear units, for otherwise Bulgaria will turn from an electricity producer into a customer, Borissov said.

GERB has submitted a draft resolution of the National Assembly instructing the Council of Ministers to conclude an intergovernmental agreement with the United States for the construction of the seventh unit of the Kozloduy NPP and to start activities on licensing the site for the eighth unit, Dobrev said. He pointed out that this draft decision will be discussed in the parliamentary Energy Committee next week and expressed hope that it will be adopted in the plenary.

It is time to take a substantive decision on the construction of this seventh reactor, which will guarantee Bulgaria's energy future, will give security to the country, will guarantee future investments in Bulgaria, Dobrev added.