site.btaTrade Unions Urge State to Facilitate at Least Partial Payment of Debts to Maritsa East Mines

Trade Unions Urge State to Facilitate at Least Partial Payment of Debts to Maritsa East Mines

Sofia, January 25 (BTA) - The Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB) and the Podkrepa Confederation of Labour will insist that the State help the Maritsa East Mines out of its dire financial straits, CITUB President Plamen Dimitrov told a news conference here on Monday.

Dimitrov specified that the two confederations will write to the Government, suggesting an option in which the Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH) would be furnished with sovereign guarantees for a loan ensuring at least a partial payment of the Mines' 515 million leva-plus receivables.

In the CITUB leader's words, a number of repairs at the Mines have not been carried out or have been done using makeshift materials, and the repair crews are forced to buy screwdrivers, hammers and other tools on their own money.

The BEH is negotiating a 650 million euro loan with foreign banks, the proceeds of which are supposed to pay the amounts that the National Electric Company (NEK) owes the two US-owned power plants in the Maritsa East Complex: AES 3C Maritza East 1 EOOD and ContourGlobal Maritsa East 3 AD. This is a condition on which the two TPPs will pay the nearly 350 million leva that they owe the Maritsa East Mines for lignite. The Brikel TPP owes the Mines nearly 50 million leva, and the Maritsa East 2 TPP almost 60 million leva.

"At the end of last year it emerged that foreign banks distrust the Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH) and refuse to lend it 650 million euro without sovereign guarantees. No sovereign guarantees for the BEH are envisaged  in the 2016 budget. Energy Minister Temenouzhka Petkova says the negotiations with the banks continue," the "Sega" daily wrote on January 20.