Bulgaria MPs Back Repaying Russian Nuclear Firm

The law proposed by the Bulgarian government on Tuesday, was adopted on a first reading with the support of 132 out of 140 lawmakers on Wednesday.

It allows the state electric company NEC to receive state aid in the form of an interest free loan and to use it to pay off its debts to Russia's state nuclear company Atomstroyexport.

This produced equipment for a power plant in the Bulgarian town of Belene that was never finished.

In June, the International Court of Arbitration in Geneva ordered Bulgaria to pay over half a billion euros in compensation to the Russian company.

During Wednesday's session, the Minister of Energy, Temenuzhka Petkova, said the debt posed a "very serious risk to the financial stability of the National Electric Company and the whole energy sector".

Earlier on Wednesday she admitted that the state has yet to decide what to do with the equipment it will acquire from Atomstroyexport after covering its debt, which accounts to around 1.2 billion leva [0.6 billion euros].

The government wants the payments made to Russia immediately as the interest rate on the debt is costing the country around 162,000 euros a day.

It remains unclear whether the government will continue seeking to sell off the Russian equipment or restart the failed nuclear plant project in order to cover its losses.

No concrete sum was mentioned in the bill because, according to the energy minister, the NEC and Atomstroyeksport need to agree first on the size and order of the payments.

"For this reason it is impossible to have a fixed sum in the draft law," she explained.

MPs have five days to propose changes to the bill prior to its final approval at a second reading next Wednesday.

However, Bulgaria is obliged to...