With 187 votes in favour, two against and 9 abstentions, the Parliament on January 12 obliged the Council of Ministers to renegotiate the Recovery and Resilience Plan with the European Commission in the part concerning coal energy in order to preserve the power plants and the mining industry in the Maritsa basin.
"I am proud of what we achieved yesterday at the energy committee, an unanimous unity on the issue of coal-fired plants, as I have personally repeated a number of times for nearly a decade, that they provide an invaluable service and we will preserve this service," said Georgi Samandov of “Bulgaria Ascending”.
"We have to do everything we can to strengthen our energy security, that is what we are doing with today's decision, but we have to do everything possible in the coming months and years to eliminate any dependence on Russian energy resources. I see that in this National Assembly there is a will to take this step, it will be supported by Democratic Bulgaria," Atanas Slavov added.
"The only possible way for us to be able to renegotiate is if we enter regionally into this discussion with Brussels. What does that mean? It means inviting colleagues from Greece, inviting colleagues from Romania, even inviting colleagues from the Western Balkans," added Kiril Petkov of “We Continue the Change”.
"I was expecting some kind of surprise from your group until the last moment, but the fact that you, as the leader of your group, say that you will support the preservation of the coal capacities, really makes me very happy. After all, this was on the one hand your moral duty, given that we got into this situation thanks to a decision that you and your partners from the BSP took," replied Iskra Mihaylova from "Vazrazhdane".
"Now I hear about some common approach, Mr Kiril Petkov is referring to Greece, the Western Balkans, Romania. Well, Mr Petkov, wasn't that clear six months ago, wasn't this the same problem again? Another argument I heard was the war in Ukraine. But the war in Ukraine began on 24 February last year, and we signed the Plan on 1 August," said Alexander Nenkov of GERB-UDF.
"We are helping the Minister of Energy or the negotiating committee to be able to still give the alternative that is necessary for our European partners to agree. Considering all this, once again the MRF, as we have been consistent, will support this decision," Ramadan Atalay added.
"Bulgaria has achieved a 48% reduction in emissions as at 2020. We are now 2023. Of course, emissions have been reduced further, so these restrictions that we are required to meet are unjustified, because we met this target long ago," Dragomir Stoynev of BSP for Bulgaria added.
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