Parliament adopted a decision that demands of the government to renegotiate the energy chapter of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan to save the country's coal-fired power plants from closure. The document was proposed by the parliamentary energy committee and backed in plenary in a 187-2 votes with nine abstentions.
All political groups supported the decision against the closure of coal plants.
By its Recovery Plan, Bulgaria makes a commitment to slash carbon emissions by 40% by 2025, which would require the phasing out of coal energy as it is.
Before the start of the debate, the head of the parliamentary energy committee, Delyan Dobrev, said that late on Wednesday evening and Thursday morning the entire committee rallied round the draft decision for renegotiating the Recovery Plan provisions relating to the commitments for cutting carbon emissions.
The decision gives the government until the end of March 2023 to take all necessary action, propose a revision of the Recovery Plan and secure European Commission approval in advance.
More specifically, the government will have to seek scrapping the commitment for 40% carbon emission cuts by the end of 2025 (from the 2019 levels) and make sure the coal plants continue operating without restrictions at least until 2038.
Before the final vote on the draft decision, the MPs took a break to join a trade union rally against the closure of coal plants, which is underway just outside the Parliament building.
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