With a surprising action on Wednesday evening, deputies from GERB demanded that the government not accept on Friday the territorial plans for a fair transition of the coal regions, but to change them. Boyko Borisov’s party claims that they saw it “indicative list of companies”, which would be supported by the government, and some of them were sponsors of PP-DB. Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov personally responded to the attacks – “I don’t know if it was intentional or unintentional, but in fact these statements lie to people about what it is about,” he said. Denkov pointed out that the companies on the list will not receive billions, but have declared their intention to invest these sums. The application is still pending.
Call for revision of plans
Part of what has been read in the plans is, to put it mildly, scandalous, we have seen an indicative list of companies that will be supported, GERB deputy Krasimir Valchev announced at a briefing in the National Assembly. Behind some of them, “the names of sponsors of “Continuing the change-Democratic Bulgaria” are clearly visible, there are no intentions for investments in transitional technologies to extend the life of the Maritsa-Iztok complex,” Valchev also said, quoted by BTA.
The government is preparing to give out 1.706 billion euros – the amount recorded in the plan – to companies that no one knows who they are, where they came from, whether they participated in an auction at all, how they were chosen, added the chairman of the energy commission Delyan Dobrev. He gave an example of a company registered in Luxembourg, which will receive 180 million euros to build a photovoltaic plant on the territory of the mines. Who is its owner, how did they choose it, asked the deputy and added that this is an international scandal. Another company was going to receive 450 million euros, for which it was also not known what it was. This is European money, which is spent in the hundreds of millions on arbitrarily selected companies, Dobrev pointed out.
If the government does not extend the life of the plants, does not speed up the negotiations with the EC, the production of electricity in our country will be alarming, warned the former energy minister Temenuzka Petkova. She noted that these plants provide 46 percent of the country’s energy, and up to 60 percent in winter.
According to Zhecho Stankov, who was deputy minister of energy in the government of GERB, these plans violate the set deadlines for the mines and tets in Bulgaria to work at least until 2038 and affect more than 49 thousand people directly or indirectly.
It is important to extend the life of the coal plants, this is also the decision of the National Assembly, but we see that the transition will be fair only for some unclearly selected people, commented Krasimir Valchev.
GERB calls on the government for a vision to extend the life of the “Maritsa-Iztok” complex and the coal plants. According to the deputy, emissions must be reduced, this can also be done with investments in intermediate technologies, but there is no such desire and thought in this direction at the moment.
The Prime Minister: Willingly or unwittingly, people are being lied to
“I don’t know whether intentionally or unintentionally, but in fact, these statements lie to people about what it is about,” Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov commented to journalists later on Wednesday.
“These are funds that the companies have said they are ready to invest, perhaps with some co-financing from the state in the future, when an application procedure is opened”Denkov also said.
“Back on August 15, the so-called declaration of intent procedure was left open to all who are interested. This is a requirement of the European Commission, which had to show whether there is a desire from companies to invest in these regions.”explained the Prime Minister and added that the companies included in these lists showed an intention to invest in the regions in question and to create jobs.
According to Denkov, the truth on the subject is completely different from what GERB said and there are at least a few things that are not true.
“First, the programs are yet to open for applications. This will happen next year. Second, this is not about money that these companies will receive, but about investments that must be made by these companies, perhaps with co-financing, in these regions to provide jobs”said Nikolay Denkov.
Investments and job creation – these are the intentions for the development of the coal regions. Any other statements on the subject are lies, the prime minister repeated.
