President Rosen Plevneliev voiced his concern about the events unfolding in the energy sector and said that the measures recently taken against the electricity distribution companies were populist. Before journalists, the Head of State harshly criticized shifting the responsibility for the situation in the sector to the Prosecutor’s Office.
According to the President, the National Electric Company loses face by adopting “an administrative-commanding style of short-term decision-making.” “An approach ensuring transparency and publicity of decision-making should be adopted. Moreover, the problems in the sector cannot be resolved if a third party interferes, the Prosecutor’s Office, in the concrete case. The people in charge of the Bulgarian energy sector should bear the responsibility to identify and solve the problems in the sector,” Rosen Plevneliev commented.
“Way back two years ago I warned that the only correct approach in the sector is to have decisions made “not piecemeal” and not “backdoor,” the President added. Once again he called on for implementing a National strategy in the energy sector as well as for going back to the consensus reached in 2012 on making the State Energy and Water Regulatory Commission an independent and non-partisan regulatory body.
“The convenient shifting of the responsibility to the Prosecutor’s Office is not a solution. We need a strong regulatory body, a national strategy which should encompass all aspects of the energy sector,” the Head of State further said.
In London Rosen Plevneliev delivered a lecture on the topic of “Southeast Europe: the road ahead” in the Institute of International Affairs “Chatham House.” Today is the last day of the President’s official visit to the United Kingdom.