Bulgaria's Energy Minister to Draft New Strategy in 9 Months

Bulgaria's Minister of Economy and Energy Dragomir Stoynev, photo by BGNES

Bulgaria's Economy and Energy Minister is to prepare an analysis of the condition of the energy sector and its subsectors in 3 months' time, while the Ministry of Economy and Energy is to draft a new energy strategy in 9 months.

The measures were approved by Parliament on Wednesday on the basis of a report reviewed by the parliamentary energy committee before the start of the summer recess, according to dnevnik.bg.

The MPs approved the proposal of socialist MP Tasko Ermenkov to analyze the reasons behind the deterioration in the sphere of energy efficiency and to prepare a forecast about energy consumption trends by 2020.

Economy and Energy Minister Dragomir Stoynev noted that the report would be compiled in a bid to outline common policies aimed at putting an end to the crisis in the sector.

"In the period 2009-2012, debts of companies in the sector increased by BGN 1.5 B. From now on, we need to join forces to find concrete solutions for rescuing the strategic energy sector," Stoynev stated.

He emphasized that the legal changes adopted by the current government had resulted in a decrease in electricity prices for the business sector.

"This had never happened before. The main goal was to reduce expenses of Bulgarian entrepreneurs because we seek to boost competitiveness. The adopted bill will not result in an increase in heating prices in winter. We had to unblock electricity exports," the Energy Minister pointed out.

He boasted that the government had enhanced the stability of the energy system.

Stoynev emphasized that the situation at the Maritsa East Mines had improved substantially after his visit, stressing that coal production had spiked from a rate of 720 000 tonnes in May to 2.466 million tonnes in August, the workers at the coal mining company were receiving payment regularly, and that the two-shift regime had been replaced by a four-shift schedule.

He also reminded that the amendments to the Energy Act had abolished the transmission fee which had previously obstructed electricity exports.

Citing statistics from the report reviewed in early summer, Ramadan Atalay, Chair of the parliamentary energy committee, argued that the energy sector had been deliberately driven to bankruptcy.

Addressing MPs of former ruling party GERB, he suggested that the policies of the previous government had brought about the current situation in the energy sector.

To illustrate his point, he compared energy sector data from 2012 to results in June 2013.

Delyan Dobrev, GERB MP and former Energy Minster, objected by saying that the comparison was untrue, stressing that the GERB government had resigned in February and a reliable comparison would involve data from December 2009 to data from December 2012.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!