EMPLOYERS IN BULGARIA SEEK ASSISTANCE FROM EC OVER ELECTRICITY PRICES

On 13th of October, representatives of the four employers organisations in Bulgaria met the management of the European Commission Representation in Bulgaria, seeking assistance in relation to their complaint against the two American power plants (owned by US private investors), operating in Bulgaria.

In September 2015, the employers’ organisations lodged a complaint with the EC explaining that Bulgaria’s state-owned power utility “National Electricity Company” (NEC) unlawfully purchased electricity from the two American TPPs at prices which were higher than the market price. Thus, every year the Bulgarian state generates deficit of 333 million BGN, the employers said.

The employers hope that EC will soon pronounce the state aid to the two TPPs as illegal. Such precedents existed in Poland and Hungary, said representatives of the Confederation of Employers and Industrialists in Bulgaria (CEIB) and the Bulgarian Industrial Capital Association (AIKB).