The energy crisis is testing the EU's competitiveness, industrial base, economic and social stability and, if left on the loose, will also threaten the EU's political security, President Rumen Radev told the media in Brussels ahead of the European Council meeting on 20 and 21 October. The war in Ukraine and the negative impact of the energy and economic crisis on Europe is the focus of the two-day HoSG meeting.
The EU will seek to reduce the price of natural gas through new instruments and mechanisms for joint supply, a reference pricing mechanism for liquefied natural gas and a dynamic price cap, the President added. Bulgaria has proposed the joint use of the gas transmission infrastructure of the member states for additional gas supplies to Europe, which would increase both the volumes and the security of energy resource transmission, the head of State specified. According to him, the most important measure is to ensure sufficient and reliable sources of supply so that there is competition and a drop in prices.
Responding to a question on whether new humanitarian aid was to be sent to Ukraine, Radev said that the country was threatened with a humanitarian crisis as a result of the strikes on its power plants and electricity grid and the EU would do its best to help it endure the upcoming winter. Already, an increase in refugees from Ukraine to Bulgaria has been registered after these attacks and the President called for the aid granted by the EU to help the countries hosting refugees to be reviewed both in terms of the amount and the mechanism for granting it.
Asked why Bulgaria, unlike Slovakia, had not sent its S-300 anti-aircraft missile system to Ukraine and had not received a Patriot system in return, the head of State recalled that Slovakia had not received such an anti-aircraft system, and two formations from Germany and the Netherlands, with German and Dutch servicemen, had been deployed on its territory. Slovakia has nothing to do with these formations except to include them in its common integrated air defence system. Slovakia has yet to procure Patriot systems, to make its orders, its payment schemes, to pay for it one day, and this will happen after a long time, Radev further said.