NEWS

President Plevneliev supports the idea of liberalizing and exercising a stricter control over the energy sector

Today the Movement for Rights and Freedoms’ leadership expressed their full support to President Rosen Plevneliev for the need to liberalize Bulgaria’s energy sector and draft a new Law for the secondary vocational education. This is the third meeting in a row held during a “month of political consultations” between the President and the parliamentary presented parties, an initiative launched by the head of state. Among the topics discussed today were the guarantees for the fairness of the elections, as well as the need to reach a consensus on the amendments to the Election Code and to carry out consistent work on the long-term national priorities up to 2020.

The Movement for Rights and Freedoms fully supports the idea for a new Law for the secondary vocational education, which is one of the priorities of the presidential institution, President Plevneliev said after the meeting.  However, the idea to draft a new law that should ensure an effective connection between education and the needs of the real economy is subject to further debate as no consensus has yet been reached on its texts.

With regard to the general elections that are due to be held in the summer, the MRF officials established that the political environment in the country had grown tense and called for supporting the measures to ensure the fairness of the elections. The MRF officials voiced expectations that the head of state would be “one of the most serious guarantors” that fair elections will be held, and the Movement said it would seek support for the idea to have observers from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) and from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) invited to the elections. The MRF officials said that the observers’ mission may in any case be constant. President Rosen Plevneliev and the MRF leadership were unanimous that the public administration should not interfere by any political or administrative means in the elections, recalling that any forms of interference on the part of the state institutions in the election process should be avoided.

During the consultations with the political forces the president said that he takes on the commitment to hold a debate on the idea that the composition of State Energy and Water Regulatory Commission, which is an independent body, should be determined by the National Assembly. They adopted a uniform position on the need for liberalizing the energy sector and exercising strict control over the operations of “monopolies, irrespective of whether they are public or private”. “The citizens have the right to choose a supplier, and the European rules regulating liberalization should be applied in Bulgaria as well”, the president pointed out.

Yet again the president condemned the “attempts at eulogizing Oktay Enimehmedov who on 19 January assaulted Ahmed Dogan, the lifetime honorary chairman of the party.

The head of state was adamant that “any provocation to test the tolerance of Bulgarian citizens is absolutely unacceptable. This is a criminal act which should not be encouraged or tolerated in any way”.

Both the president and the MRF leadership declared their support for the balanced development of Bulgarian agriculture, which is a strategic branch in the Bulgarian economy. They said that by the end of 2013 they should seek policies in support of the diversity in the agricultural sector, pointing out that at present the majority of the European funds allocated to the sector are directed towards grain production.

The MRF leadership made a high assessment of the 15 priority areas of national importance formulated by the head of state, saying that on each area the MRF experts will submit their opinions to the head of state. Furthermore they stressed the need to adopt measures to stimulate the small and medium-sized enterprises, the establishment of an electronic government, as well as the need to reach a long-term consensus and continuity on the priorities under Bulgaria 2020 program.