A correspondent for BGNES said that an emergency meeting of the National Assembly's Committee on Energy has been called to discuss the president's veto of the Energy Act amendments.
With 11 in favor and 3 against, the commission overrode the president's veto.
The lack of a favorable impact assessment on this major reform justifies the President's veto. President Rumen Radev of Bulgaria has vetoed a bill to amend the country's Energy Law, citing concerns for the welfare of the country's inhabitants and the energy sector. Krum Zarkov, the president's legal adviser and a former acting minister of justice, made this claim.
He said that in 2026, with the free market gone, so will be the tools to compensate individual customers. To counteract the shock, the proposed compensation method does not offer sufficient assurances. To help those who are still struggling beyond 2026, Krum Zarkov argued that compensation should be maintained. The president's advisor suggested that the National Assembly revisit and examine again a reform that is consistent with European criteria and the scenario in which most Bulgarians find themselves.
The president's economic adviser and former deputy prime minister, Hristo Alexiev, highlighted that the president is worried that the change would have a lasting impact on the market and consumers. Without doing the appropriate financial study to see if there is enough money in the fund to compensate citizens, the economy might suffer in the long run. We are worried about Mini Maritsa Iztok, the state-owned thermal power plant. In a free and controlled market, there is no need for such urgency when expressing pricing. Hristo Alexiev noted that "the EU directive does not give us an end date for the liberalization of the market and it does not impose on us the way in which this reform should be carried out."
Since the authorities are just concerned with how to collect money from the EU, BSP member Dragomir Stoynev stated that they will back the president's veto. The management don't conduct adequate research. They smear dirt into their eyes, Stoynev remarked.
After the municipal elections, PP-DB member Radoslav Ribarski requested that the veto be discussed in the plenary. This is a major change. There will likely be a price drop. Rybarski argued that, because the law's adoption had been delayed for so long, it should be passed immediately.
ITN's Pavela Mitova stressed that people' rights and the market liberalization program as a whole are at odds. There will be major issues and we will all be energy impoverished if the public provider is eliminated. Mitova warned that Asen Vassilev would have trouble paying the compensations since he couldn't collect the VAT.
Delyan Dobrev, MP from GERB and head of the energy panel, claimed that everyone should have responded last year, when the promise was made to the EC. If we don't pass this law, the PVU money will be in jeopardy. We too have worries, but we don't see these challenges as insurmountable, and we believe that solutions are possible within a reasonable amount of time. According to Delyan Dobrev, "the wholesale market will be liberalized on July 1, 2024, and the retail market will be liberalized on July 1, 2026." /BGNES
