Will we lose the mines and TPP Maritsa-Iztok… The topic caused scandals on the last working day of the parliament. What happened… MP Iskra Mihailova from "Vazrazhdane" spoke to FAKTI.
- Mrs. Mihailova, you can't help but remember the last working day of the 50th National Assembly. Why does the topic of Mini Maritsa East EAD always heat up passions?
- The Maritsa-East mining and energy complex is an object of national security in the event of increasingly heated military conflicts in the vicinity of Bulgaria. These are companies in a closed cycle of electricity production - coal is mined in the (state-owned) mines, and electricity is produced in the thermal power plants. The capacity is so large that it can provide households and businesses.
There is no way to avoid “heat the passions” when, on the last day of the National Assembly, GERB and DPS introduce extraordinary points to cancel decisions protecting the integrity of the complex and are supported by PP-DB, for which. Debt of “Revival“ was to seek unification among all the other people's representatives, be it by talking one by one to end this outrage. Fortunately, we succeeded.
- An extraordinary draft decision was now submitted to the Energy Commission, which concerned the allocation of BGN 200 million per year to Mini Maritsa East. The proposal was submitted by GERB and DPS…
- Now a decision was made to accept the report of Finance Minister Lyudmila Petkova, appointed by GERB and DPS, but let's not forget - she was Asen Vassilev's deputy minister during the administration of PP-DB.
In her report, it is said that the National Assembly should amend a number of its decisions, adopted by almost full or full majority in various parts of the National Assembly, namely:
1. Decision of the National Assembly of the Republic of Bulgaria
of January 12, 2023, with which the Council of Ministers is obliged to change the Recovery and Sustainability Plan in the "Energy" part, by revising the obligation in item 5, namely to amend the part about the removal of the network operators "Bulgartransgaz" ; and ESO from the BEH structure.
2. Decision of the National Assembly of July 20, 2023 to carry out certain actions of state bodies on the territory of “Mini Maritsa-east” EAD.
This is the decision that stopped the attempts to sell off the land to the mines piecemeal, and now such an action can only happen after the sanction of the National Assembly.
H. Decision of April 25, 2024 to provide funds to “Mini Maritsa East” EAD for a period of four years (2024 - 2028), with the aim of ensuring technical reclamation activities of the disturbed areas of the “Istochnomariska coal basin” deposit.
The idea here is that there is an opportunity to provide the necessary funding for part of these activities until the middle of 2026. And in this regard, to consider the possibility of changing the period in the Decision of the National Assembly, namely postponing it by 2 years - from 2026 until 2030. On the one hand, this would be a financial relief, but on the other, it neither guarantees the funds, nor is it clear what Bulgaria should give in return.
When this proposal, requiring in-depth discussions and a careful examination of all the pros and cons, is forced to be accepted on the last day of work, without the knowledge of the employees in the complex, there is no way of “Revival” not to oppose.
- Will we get money from the EU to transform the region, or is everything already lost…
- Everything is possible if there is a government with a backbone and a thought for the Bulgarians first. Therefore, it is very important that everyone votes in the elections to stop the experiments. From “Revival“ we can meet this challenge despite the grave mistakes accumulated in the past by a number of governments since the 1990s.
- From “Revival” you say several times that it is important that funds to help Mini Maritsa-East remain in the company, and not be given to the outer circle of companies close to power. What kind of companies are we talking about?
- The financial appetites both for the mine sites, for the reclamation activities, and for the money under the PVA for projects are huge. Remember the list of companies that was leaked by the Ministry of Energy just a few months ago - 95% of them were approached by PP-DB, GERB and DPS. There is a lot of investigative material on the case.
- Why from “Revival“ you think the “Green Deal” will it take another form over time and is it possible to pull enough countries from it?
- Because it is hypocritical and misplaced. Environmental policies are very much in the background, not to say almost non-existent. We are extremely behind in this direction. On the other hand, there is heavy lobbying in the field of renewable energy sources - firstly with subsidies and financing, secondly with unregulated leasing of land, including fertile agricultural land through fraud in local authorities, mainly controlled by GERB and DPS.
I'll give you just one example. Next to the Maritsa East complex, 240 decares of 40-year-old forest were cut down, planted on land reclaimed from mining, to now be a photovoltaic park. This has to stop. From “Revival“ we want real green policies, not hypocrisy destroying our economy and in the case of the complex, threatening our energy independence. In this connection, with my colleagues Daniel Prodanov, also a member of the Energy Committee, and Stoyan Taslakov, a member of the Committee on EU Affairs, we are going to meetings in the Bundestag. There we will look for common ground on renegotiating the conditions for nation states and if we find it, we will continue to look for broad unification in all EU member states.
- Can we maintain our energy independence today and how?
- We can. With planning and development of a nationally responsible up-to-date strategy for sustainable energy development.