Scandal after scandal in the National Assembly, and Bulgaria will lose hundreds of millions of euros from the Recovery Plan

New scandals unfolded in the National Assembly throughout the evening of the last day of the 50th Parliament's existence. MPs from "There is such people" and "Vazrazhdane" stood in front of the tribune and blocked the way to it, microphone cables were torn out, bills were read aloud from the floor... In the end, after three failed attempts to gather a quorum, the parliament was disbanded shortly before midnight. Minutes later, the official election campaign started.

Thus, Bulgaria will lose hundreds of millions of new European funding related to the Recovery Plan and the European Green Deal. And new promises of a just transition will be made for the protesting miners.

The key was the adoption of the updated road map for climate neutrality, according to which our country could expect more than 500 million euros for the reclamation of the coal mine sites. This was the last opportunity to save more than BGN 2 billion under the Recovery Plan, commented Delyan Dobrev from GERB - SDS. In the hall, two draft decisions submitted by GERB-SDS and deputies from the PG of the DPS were proposed, and they gave the opportunity for this money to come, he explained. The funds were even coordinated with the unions, which organized a protest earlier in Sofia.

Unfortunately, Dobrev pointed out, with this circus that took place in the plenary hall, we irretrievably lost many billions of funds from European funds, because the deadline was September 30, and there cannot be a session of the parliament until September 30, because from September 27 it starts the election campaign.

The "occupation" of the tribune was carried out by the "There is such people" and "Vazrazhdane" parties.

Before that, Pavela Mitova took the floor for the procedure in the manner of conduct and pointed out that the Speaker of the National Assembly, Raya Nazaryan, violated Art. 46 of the parliamentary rules in relation to the verification of the quorum. After that, her microphone was turned off and Raya Nazaryan commented that there was no order in the hall.

At 21:00, the parliament continued the session after another check showed the presence of a quorum, Dir.bg reported.

Due to the blocked rostrum, Delyan Dobrev (GERB-SDS) began to read from his seat the report of the departmental commission in connection with the updated climate neutrality road map, while deputies tried to tear out the cables of the sound system. 

Deputies from ITN began broadcasting live what was happening on Slavi Trifonov's television. Several people's representatives streamed the scandal on social networks.

Shortly after 10 p.m., the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, Rositsa Kirova, announced a 10-minute break and a presidential council, but "Vazrazhdane" continued to speak through the microphone of Slavi Trifonov's television.

After the convened presidential council, Rositsa Kirova checked the quorum. Nine people's representatives registered with her, after which Kirova announced that she was closing the meeting and rang the parliamentary bell. All the time, the microphone in the tribune was not working, adds BTA.

The end of the meeting was met with applause by the people's representatives, who had still blocked the parliamentary tribune, and by the miners who were watching the plenary session.

After the last parliamentary bell of the 50th Parliament, the lights in the plenary hall were turned off. Deputies remained inside, shining flashlights from their phones and singing the national anthem of the Republic of Bulgaria.

"The moment it smelled of money, of stealing money, through the Recovery and Sustainability Plan (RSP), something that those working in the Mariski Basin do not support, and they were in the room all day to express their unwillingness to do this happened, at the moment when PP-DB smelled money, DPS of Delyan Peevski and GERB gathered immediately," said Toshko Yordanov.

"We stay until 00:00 in order to comply with the law as much as possible. Even if they hold an extraordinary meeting, it will not work for them, because on September 30th the deadline for them to use the money under the RSP expires, Balabanov pointed out.

"The terminology of losing the money is not correct, the terminology is we will not allow them to steal two billion, said Yordanov. This is money to be stolen, the cultural term is absorption, but this is not money for the development of the economy," added Yordanov.

"Today, we took all possible measures to stop two draft decisions, which we consider extremely harmful for the Maritsa East complex, for the coal-fired power industry in Bulgaria and in general for the energy industry in our country as a whole. This is what Iskra Mihailova from "Vazrazhdane" told journalists on the sidelines of Parliament after the session was adjourned.

"With one draft decision, the executive power was trying to say that the National Assembly should cancel three of its decisions, taken by consensus," Iskra Mihailova pointed out. "Only one part of the solution project was discussed with the miners and the people were left with an extremely wrong impression of what it was about, and in the decision in question, which had to be adopted, all the old conditions of the Recovery and Sustainability Plan were returned," she added. Mihailova recalled that the National Assembly decided that the plan should to renegotiate - the percentages of electricity from coal should be different and not to exclude Electric Energy System Operator (ESO) and "Bulgatransgaz" from the lists, and these things, according to the ministry, should be dropped, a BTA reporter reported. "And the aid of 250 million leva per year for the mines, the National Assembly had to withdraw it, because of the clause we put in that this money must remain in the mines," she added.

The miners were misled after they found out the truth, you saw that all day there were people from the complex who stayed and applauded at the end when we managed to fail the meeting," Iskra Mihailova commented.

She announced that "Vazrazhdane" will remain in the plenary hall despite the end of the session. "At the moment we are staying because in the committees of the National Assembly the people's representatives have chats on Viber and we received an error in two of these committees from representatives of GERB: "Colleagues, at 23:45 everyone in the hall", she pointed out. Mihailova commented that no they think they will resume the meeting, but that was their plan. "We can't be sure, so we will stay until 00:00 anyway," she said.

After the changes, key to the RSP, were not approved, it is becoming more and more likely that our country will lose billions of euros more in funding related to the transition of the coal regions and the green deal.