WCC-DB and GERB-UDF support the sale of reactors from Bulgaria's cancelled Belene NPP project to Ukraine

The political parties We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria (WCC-DB) and GERB-UDF support the sale of the reactors from the cancelled Belene Nuclear Power Plant project to Ukraine, believing that it will benefit the Bulgarian economy. However, the party Vazrazhdane insists that the reactors should remain in Bulgaria and plans to submit a proposal to restart the construction of the Belene Nuclear Power Plant.

• Ukraine is ready to buy the two reactors from cancelled Belene NPP project

Boyko Borisov, Chairman of GERB: "Just as we tolerate Gutsanov meeting with Mitrofanova, taking into account the complexity of the coalition and their ideological attachments to Russia, they will also tolerate what we have committed to our Ukrainian and Atlantic partners. This is the price of compromise. But WCC and DB have given me this. It is certainly more beneficial than leaving them there, with no European regulation that would allow Russian reactors to be built, to be honest."

Lena Borislavova, WCC-DB: "This is very good news. It will be beneficial for the Bulgarian economy because this is equipment that cannot currently be used for the needs of Bulgarian energy sector, it’s obsolete, not safe, and it would be great if we could at least partially recover the cost we’ve paid for it by finalising this deal. So we support it."

Iskra Mihailova, Vazrazhdane: "We are submitting a decision to cancel these negotiations altogether. We believe that this equipment should remain in Bulgaria and be used to complete the Belene Nuclear Power Plant. There is no way we can vote 'yes,' on the contrary, this is our consistent position. We expect, however, that other colleagues from different political organisations, who have expressed similar positions in the past, will convince their current coalition partners that it’s high time for Bulgaria to show common sense and not sell off or gift away, because if you remember, the price at which negotiations are being held is the purchase price of the reactors, which is 1.176 billion, literally a giveaway by the Bulgarian state."

photos by BTA, BGNES/archive