Parliament: The last coal-fired thermal power plant in our country will stop on December 31, 2038, which will be before that remains unclear

With 120 votes "for", 46 "against" and one "abstention", the parliament supported the Climate Neutrality Roadmap of the Republic of Bulgaria, updated by the Council of Ministers. Before that, it was a heated discussion between protesters, the government and MPs at a meeting on October 4, 2023. Thus, the then signed agreement between the Prime Minister, members of the Council of Ministers, people's representatives and representatives of trade union organizations in the "Energy" sector, concluded on 3 October 2023, it was made official.

The decision also states that the National Assembly accepts the Climate Neutrality Roadmap of the Republic of Bulgaria, according to which electricity from coal is produced without limitation at least until December 31, 2038, as the end date, BTA reported.

The government specifies that the previously indicated intermediate values of energy capacities for coal processing, for 2026, 2030 and 2035, respectively, will be removed from the road map. They will be refined in the course of the renegotiation of the National Recovery and Sustainability Plan, as suggested by the decision of the National Assembly of January 12 of this year.

At an extraordinary meeting earlier on Friday, the Parliamentary Committee on Energy adopted a draft decision on the adoption of the Road Map for Climate Neutrality of the Republic of Bulgaria. It was updated by the Council of Ministers in connection with the agreement between the Prime Minister, MPs and trade unions in the energy sector.

The Commission agreed that the updated roadmap should explicitly state that electricity from coal will be produced until at least 31 December 2038.

Dragomir Stoynev from the parliamentary group (PG) of "BSP for Bulgaria" said that this date should not be present, but that after 2038 the coal plants should operate on a market basis.

Iskra Mihailova from the PG of "Vazrazhdane" pointed out that it should be written down that electricity from coal should be produced without limitation at least until 2038, which was subsequently accepted.

Pavleta Mitova from the PG of "There is such a people" said that at least until 2038 electricity should be produced from coal plants, and in the draft decision it is written that the coal capacities will be closed by this year. However, management responded that this was written in the original draft decision, not the updated one.

Ramadan Atalay of the DPS PG also proposed to write down that coal-fired electricity would be produced at least until 2038, which was accepted.

Venko Sabrutev from the PG "Continuing the Change-Democratic Bulgaria" pointed out that the market should determine who should work and who should not. The purpose of the draft decision is to allow the market to determine who should work until at least 2038. "We have no intention of closing capacity," Sabrutev pointed out.

The president of the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions (KNSB) in Bulgaria, Plamen Dimitrov, drew attention to the fact that the two unions were against the initial version of the road map. According to him, the updated road map is the second step of the agreement reached. He pointed out that in the current version of the road map there are no commitments to close coal plants until 2038. Plamen Dimitrov proposed to entrust the Council of Ministers with bringing the territorial plans for a just transition in line with the updated road map and the decision of the National Assembly of 4 October, in which the agreement with the unions was adopted. However, this proposal was not recognized by the deputies.

The president of CT "Podkrepa" Dimitar Manolov asked whether the date of the shutdown of coal plants is January 1, 2038 or December 31, 2038. On this occasion, the deputies voted and adopted with 17 votes "for" and "3" against" coal-fired power plants to be produced at least until December 31, 2038.