Bulgaria's Top Diplomat Recants Position on Belene Scandal

Bulgaria's Foreign Affairs Minister, Nikolay Mladenov, denies ever calling the NEK head trash. Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria's Foreign Affairs Minister, Nikolay Mladenov, told the media Thursday that what he said during a TV interview a day earlier about the signed Nuclear Power Plant documents has been misinterpreted.

"What I said was that it is totally unacceptable for someone to be doing something behind the back of his or her supervising Minister. The trash in question is the situation we are all in where everyone talks and interprets things," Mladenov stated in the Parliament's hallway, adding he regrets the fact his words were related directly to the Head of the National Electric Company, NEK, Krasimir Parvanov.

On Wednesday, in a TV interview for the private bTV channel, Mladenov stated: "This is trash," and when asked to elaborate what exactly he meant, he replied: "An individual, who takes the liberty of signing something, when he is explicitly banned from doing so by the Minister in charge of their sector, has no place working in any of the State institutions."

Mladenov called the agreement Parvanov signed with the Russian "Atomstroyexport" a breach of national security.

With this words Bulgaria's top diplomat became the only Minister from the cabinet of the center-right Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria, GERB, party to publicly support Economy and Energy Minister, Traicho Traikov, in his attempt the fire the NEK Director over the signed documents.

Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, however, interfered, issuing a last warning to Traikov, and confirming the documents have been endorsed with the approval of Deputy PM and Finance Minister, Simeon Djankov.

Also in an interview for bTV, Parvanov, who got to keep his post per Borisov's order, declared Thursday he would not seek apologies from neither Traikov or Mladenov.

Mladenov now says nothing in the endorsed documents can be seen as changing Bulgaria's position regarding the project to build a second NPP in the Danube town of Belene, and appealed for a serious debate on the future of the project and its financing.

"The cabinet has been very active in all these issues since it took office," the Minister concluded.

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