Prime Minister Acad. Nikolai Denkov: Agreement is achievable with negotiations, not with loudspeakers

01.10.2023

Today, more than ever before, we need to agree on how the Bulgarian energy sector is to develop in the next 20 years. The agreement is to rest on real facts and broadcasts and not on political concoctions and unrealistic expectations. To reach an agreement, negotiations should start. However, not with loudspeakers but by bringing the representatives of all parties concerned to one negotiating table so that everyone can have their say and the best solution that pleases all can be found.

With these words, Prime Minister Acad. Nikolai Denkov addressed today all protesters from the energy sector and the coalmining industry as he spoke with TV cameras around. He could not do it in person, as the 25 trade unionists whom he invited to a discussion on the future of the energy sector did not turn up at the meeting in the headquarters of the government.

The Prime Minister reiterated the points on which the government may open negotiations:

1. Territorial plans will not close down power plants and coalmines. They are intended to attract BGN 4 billion to be spent on the development of the coalmining regions under several different programs. The money can transform the regions. The funding is available but we have to request it and spend it in keeping with the European Commission’s rules.
2. The submission of the documents to Brussels is just the beginning of negotiations. We will conduct negotiations on all specific points in the upcoming very important phase. The territorial plans do not make it binding on Bulgaria to undertake to cease the generation of electricity from coal.  These plans outline what Bulgaria will do with the EU funding to ensure the future of the people in the region with long-term jobs and modern enterprises.
3. We submitted the territorial plans on the last possible date. The plans must be approved by 31 December 2023. All other states submitted their territorial plans to the Commission a long time ago. We have exactly two months for the negotiation with the Commission. We expect to discuss the substance of the matter with the trade unions so as to continue the negotiations with the Commission and, together with the trade unions, to word our reasons and to make our demands.
4. We are not talking about any date other than 2038. The generation of electricity from coal will not stop before the said year. There were demands from protesters to give up 2026 as the deadline for the decommissioning of the Bobov Dol TPP and we removed that closing date from the plans. There are no end dates for the decommissioning of specific coal-fired power plants. We will provide the necessary baseload capacity from coal-fired power plants until at least 2038 in order to guarantee the national energy security. Even when the generation of electricity from coal ceases after years, the companies will continue to operate for the purpose of land reclamation and conversion for at least another 5 to 10 years.
5. The government has announced the possibility to establish a state-owned operator Conversion of the Coalmining Regions, which likewise can create jobs and prepare public sites for the development of new businesses. While the coalmines will reclaim their land to clear it for fields and forests, the state-owned enterprise will convert other lands into sites suitable for industrial operations. This enterprise will not seize functions from the mines. It will function in cooperation and in coordination with the mines so that they complement rather than oppose each other.
6. Regarding the compensation payments to workers who decide to quit and do not want to remain in the employment of the state-owned operator, the government will work together with the trade unions to prepare a National Compensation Package Program. The Program will be financed by the national budget. Standard packages for similar moves in other states are made up of 24 monthly salaries. Here we are discussing a package of up to 36 salaries. The calculation will conform to a methodology that will be developed jointly by the cabinet and the unions.
7. We work in a priority order to attract investors to invest in the development of new industries and to create jobs. Within just four weeks, the government successfully attracted investors who had expressed interest to invest a total of BGN 3.5 billion and over to develop new industries and to create more than 4,300 jobs. The offer to large potential investors remains valid. They will be selected subject to an upcoming open and transparent tendering procedure.
8. We want to conclude an agreement with the trade unions to further reassure the people that the government is not planning to close down the power plants and that the territorial plans do not make any commitments to Europe to that effect. At any time, the cabinet is willing to continue the work on the agreement with an input from the unions.
9. Terms of reference for the Masterplan for the Development of Maritsa Iztok are being written. The task will be assigned by the Bulgarian Energy Holding and the Plan’s advisory board will seek the involvement of the social partners and of renowned international financial institutions such as the European Investment Bank and the World Bank.
10. Some of the protesters’ grumbles concern problems that have already been addressed in the plans, so many of the demands today are based on fake or distorted information.

Unfortunately, the closing date for the submission of the plans to the European Commission coincided with the launch of the local election campaign. This furnished a convenient reason for political parties and people running for positions within the local government to abuse of the worries of the people in the region and to deceive them by giving unrealistic campaign promises, the Prime Minister said further. He was indignant that the protests in the Mini Maritsa Iztok are organized by a leader on the ticket for municipal councilors in the municipality of Stara Zagora and that another organizer is a prominent functionary of a political party. “Reckless political actions disguised as trade union initiatives will not help the people; they will help only the aspirations of politicians to seize local power,” Acad. Nikolai Denkov said.

In his view, there will be no solution as long as there are protests, blockades and deliberate or undeliberate thrust to this man’s or that man’s political ambitions in an election campaign; there will be no solution if the daily life of citizens is paralyzed. Again, the Prime Minister called the protesting energy sector workers and coalminers to sit down and negotiate so as to work together on the issues that cause their concerns. “No one, except the government and the trade unions together, can cope with this past due task,” Acad. Nikolai Denkov stressed.