site.btaParliamentary Ad-hoc Committee to Scrutinise Belene N-plant Project

Parliamentary Ad-hoc Committee to Scrutinise Belene N-plant Project

Sofia, October 18 (BTA) - The MPs decided on Tuesday to set up an ad-hoc committee to check all data and circumstances for decisions and actions, related to the Belene N-plant project in the period from 2006 to September 2016 that saddled the state with substantial financial obligations.

In June 2016, an arbitration court in Geneva ordered Bulgaria to pay 553 million euro for equipment, that had been produced by  Atomstroyexport for the Belene N-plant, before the project was scrapped by the government in Sofia over financial considerations.

The committee, comprising 20 MPs from all parliamentary groups, is chaired by Valeri Simeonov MP from the Patriotic Front with Metodi Andreev MP from GERB and Antoni Trenchev MP from the Reformist Bloc serving as his deputies. The committee is set up for a period of three months.

During the debate, Dimitar Bairaktarov MP from the Patriotic Front said that the setting up of such a committee is important as the truth needs to come out.

Martin Dimitrov MP from the Reformist Bloc said it is critical to clear up where the responsibility for Belene lies, who was involved and who did what.

Delyan Dobrev MP from GERB said that had the project been shelved back in 2008, "now we would have had to pay zilch." To which Dragomir Stoinev MP from the Bulgarian Socialist Party responded that Bulgaria lost the arbitration case because GERB halted the project.

The Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) opposed setting up yet another ad-hoc committee. Ramadan Atalay MP from MRF said all ad-hoc committees set up by this Parliament have been useless. Instead, he suggested that the Belene case is examined by the Parliamentary Energy Policy Committee.

The appealing of the arbitration court decision on the Belene N-plant does not stop the accrual of
interests, former deputy energy minister Valentin Nikolov told journalists in Parliament.

Democrats for Strong Bulgaria leader Radan Kanev and Martin Dimitrov of the Civil Board of the Reformist Bloc (RB) said that the time period for submitting an appeal might have deliberately been missed because there are talks on the sale of  the facility with an alleged private investor, said Dimitrov. "When you do not agree with a certain decision, you appeal it atall instances," he noted. "If there is an arrangement for the
construction of Belene among GERB, the Bulgarian Socialist Party and, possibly, people from Russia this will be very bad for Bulgaria," he added.

Nikolov urged the RB to propose a buyer because GERB do not have such. A possible appeal may take a year and in the meantime interests will still be charged. In Nikolov's opinion the Energy Ministry has assessed the possibilities for submitting an appeal. He recalled that talks are going on not to charge
additional interest provided that the country has agreed to make the payment, adjudicated by the arbitration court.

According to Nikolov, another possibility is to install the reactors in the Kozloduy N-plant rather than sell them. Nikolov expressed his personal opinion that the project should be ultimately closed and Bulgaria should seek new opportunities