“Today the government adopted the Just Transition Plan. This plan will be sent to the European Commission tomorrow. This is literally the deadline so we don’t lose the remaining funds under the Just Transition Plan. Last year we lost over 100 million because the plan didn’t ship… Standard packages are 24 months. In Bulgaria, we discussed with the parliamentary parties that they could be up to 36 months.
This means that such a package would be between 140,000 – 150,000 per person, per worker”.
This was said by the Minister of Finance Asen Vasilev after the extraordinary meeting of the Council of Ministers, at which the main topic was the fate of the coal plants on the occasion of the discussed social packages for the miners who do not wish to continue working in the sector.
He recalled that the problem with the coal industry is not new:
“Since 2019, the date 2038 has been written into our legislation in the energy strategy adopted by the then parliament. This is the date on which Bulgaria must close its coal production. This date is saved. It has not been changed. What we are seeing now, within this year, is that mines and thermal power plants are facing financial problems because the cost of the electricity they produce is very high relative to market prices and they cannot realize enough energy. These problems will only get worse in the future!”.
