site.bta30% of Bulgarians Likely To Receive Energy Allowances after Market Liberalization

30% of Bulgarians Likely To Receive Energy Allowances after Market Liberalization

Brussels, January 15 (BTA) - Energy Minister Temenouzhka Petkova on Friday participated in a first of a series of meetings with European Commission experts devoted to the upcoming full liberalization of Bulgaria's energy market. Official figures show that some 30 per cent of Bulgarians are energy poor, said Petkova, speaking to Bulgarian journalists.

She said that after the energy market liberalization the energy poor will be tested by the state.

The Minister assuaged Bulgarian consumers that their interests won't be harmed and there won't be any shocks to the system. She said that criteria for determining who is energy poor will be set by April.

According to Petkova, Bulgaria is among the last EU countries without a liberalized energy market where a very large portion of the population is energy poor. Taking a question, the Minister said that the Labour Ministry pays some 85 million leva in energy allowances to 276,000 people every year.

Taking a question Petkova said that Bulgaria sent an inquiry to the EC Directorates for Energy and Competitiveness about the enforcement of a directive regulating the relations between customers and the heating utilities. Experts said that the EU directive is not applicable to Bulgarian legislation as these are contractual obligations between the company and the condominium management.

She said that the EU directive can't be enforced. "Most probably the situation will remain but we'll look for a solution because we know how important this problem is," said the Minister.