NEWS

The Head of State: Bulgaria Should Decide Whether to Rely on Quantity or Quality in the Energy Sector

“Bulgaria needs to hold a responsible debate on the future of the energy sector in the country which will show whether we have the ambition to build more new energy facilities or will rely on quality and energy efficiency.” This is what President Rosen Plevneliev said, who held talks with Connie Hedegaard, EU Commissioner for climate action at 2 Dondukov street. The Head of State emphasized that today our country continues to produce more electricity than the citizens and the business circles need.

Rosen Plevneliev called on the politicians to honestly answer the public the question concerning the benefits from the implementation of every project on a new energy facility and its impact on the spending on electricity made not only by the business circles, but also by the households. “The citizens can make an informed choice only if they have access to concrete numbers about the price of the facilities and the future price of energy,” the President emphasized.

In the Head of State’s view, instead of taking out a loan worth10 billion euros to build a new nuclear power station, our country would more considerably benefit from launching a national program for energy efficiency. “The pilot project on energy efficiency resulted in a more than 40 percent reduction of the spending on electricity made by the households.  Currently the European Commission can offer a lot more funds to Bulgaria and we can achieve better results,” the President pointed out. The higher competitiveness of the Bulgarian companies and creating 25 to 30 thousand jobs under the future energy efficiency program are factors which Bulgarian politicians should not overlook, Rosen Plevneliev thinks.

The common opinion shared by President Plevneliev and Commissioner Hedegaard was that building a low-carbon economy lies at the basis of sustainable growth and environmental protection and is among the important EU priorities. The Head of State reiterated Bulgaria’s support for a common EU framework for the policies in the climate and energy sectors in the period up to 2030. “The planned reduction of the greenhouse emissions in the EU member states by 40 percent up to 2030 is ambitious, yet attainable. Of course, the costs should be precisely calculated,” the President pointed out.

Rosen Plevneliev reiterated Bulgaria’s readiness to participate in the forthcoming debate on reducing the EU’s energy dependence and also to work for securing energy diversification and security in Southeast Europe.  Both Rosen Plevneliev and Connie Hedegaard consider the cohesion between the individual European states a key factor for ensuring more security in the supply of energy resources. The two unanimously agreed that additional EU funding is not required to this effect and that the East and Southeast European countries should set the priority of building inter-connectors between their gas-transit systems.