EU Green Deal Jeopardizes Energy Generaion in Bulgaria

Under the EU Green Deal, of which Bulgaria is part, the use of coal in energy industry is to be done away with by 2030. The target is  net carbon emissions to be reduced by 55%.

Politicians in this country have, for a long time, been skirting this important issue, an issue connected with the national security of the country, but commissioner Mariya Gabriel recently stated that the European Commission is expecting the negotiations on the deadline for the closure of the thermal power plants to be, at long last, finalized. Preferably, this should take place with the recovery and resilience plan. All the more so that besides funding under the plan, Bulgaria is to receive another 2.02 billion euro from the Just Transition Fund to a green economy.

"From an energy specialist's point of view this is not normal - for a small part, less than 1%, of the capacity of the facility to be working," says Podkrepa Confederation of Labour confederal secretary Alexander Zagorov:

 

"The dangerously low levels of energy production will jeopardize the economy, as well as thermal power station technology, which, on its part is an extremely severe financial blow."

Days before the caretaker cabinet was dissolved (13 September), the two ministers Kiril Petkov (of the economy) and Assen Vassilev (of finance) paid a visit to the miners and engineers in theMaritsa Iztok coal-mining region (Stara Zagora) in which more than 20,000 are employed. The ministers signed the petition in defence of the coal mines and coal-fired power plants, launched by the trade unions - the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria and the Podkrepa Confederation of Labour. Minister Assen Vassilev stated he was against the construction of a combined gas and steam plant at...

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