Bulgarian Minister: Negotiations with Gazprom may be Unpleasant and Immoral but They will Continue

"Perhaps the negotiations with Gazprom are immoral and unpleasant, most likely Russia is not a reliable long-term partner, but we will continue our trade relations".

This was stated to BNT by the Deputy Prime Minister for the management of European funds, Atanas Pekanov.

He added that the aim of the government is to provide the required amount of gas and for it to be at acceptable prices. According to him, diversification should be done first but negotiations with the Russian side are imperative. His speech was on the occasion of yesterday's briefing of the crisis headquarters for the energy sector, during which the Minister of Energy Rosen Hristov announced that "obviously we have to turn to Gazprom".

The Deputy Prime Minister also said that trade relations with Russia continue anyway and added that it was the regular government of Kiril Petkov that won a derogation from the European directive banning the import of Russian oil.

Pekanov also stated that the "Green Deal" is the way we will become energy dependent. He specifically identified the "Green Deal" as a path to long-term diversification.

Failure to reform the Ministry of Interior delays the first payment under the Recovery Plan

The first payment under the Recovery and Resilience Plan is delayed because of a failed reform, announced Atanas Pekanov. The reason is the delayed completion of the unified national radio communication system TETRA (centralized management of crisis response units such as the 112 system, the early warning and notification system, the mountain rescue service, the maritime administration, etc.), which is delayed due to the lack of submitted offers for the public procurement for BGN 108.5...