site.bta Parliament Passes Conclusively State Aid Bill to Pay for Belene N-plant Equipment

Parliament Passes Conclusively State Aid Bill to Pay for Belene N-plant Equipment

Sofia, September 28 (BTA) - Parliament on Wednesday approved a loan to the National Electricity Company (NEK) in order to pay Atomstroyexport for the equipment produced for the Belene N-plant following a judgment of the International Court of Arbitration. The aid is to be repaid and the Council of Ministers disburses the payments under the procedure of the Public Finances Act through the budget of the Ministry of Energy.

NEK will not pay interest on the aid and does not provide securities, the MPs decided.

The conditions on the extension and repayment of the aid will be determined by the Council of Ministers. The funds will be extended on the basis of an agreement between the Minister of Energy and NEK approved by the Government, in a bulk sum or in parts depending on an agreement for final settlement of the parties in the arbitration case.

Parliament did not pass the motion of the Bulgarian Socialist Party to state specifically that the amount of the aid is up to 1,270,000,000 leva, which NEK will return within a period of 15 years after the funds are received. Otherwise the Bulgarian state would be signing a blank cheque, was the argument of the Left.

Budget Committee Chair Menda Stoyanova and Energy Minister Temenuzhka Petkova refuted these claims.

The majority also rejected the motions of the Reformist Bloc's Martin Dimitrov and Peter Slavov for an independent expertise of the equipment provided. In case discrepancies are found, as well as cases of incomplete fitting and/or incomplete production, to claim compensation for the period of delay and/or sustained damages, including by contesting calculated interests for payment in arrears, the MPs wanted.

The law provides that the aid should be provided only following a positive decision of the European Commission on the basis of notification. The Minister of Energy will administrate the aid who is obligated to provide the Minister of Finance with the necessary information to send the notification to the European Commission.

The overdue state's receivables from NEK are private state receivables and will be collected by the National Revenue Agency, the MPs decided.

The law will become effective from the day it is promulgated in the "State Gazette".

The law will unravel one of the tightest knots in the Bulgarian energy industry. The arbitration decision comes in the wake of the fact that what has been ordered has not been paid. This happened because some people have exceeded their authority while others have not done anything, Petkova said and pointed out that now the matter is left for the future. One way or another there are two reactors, one fully completed and one completed at about 90 per cent. The approach should be pragmatic and defend to a maximum the interests of the country, Petkova explained, recalling that the Bulgarian government does not have 20,000 million leva to build just Belene N-plant.

The amount of the interest is yet to be specified after the claims Bulgaria has lodged with the Arbitration Court because it is possible that the interest might be reduced.