site.btaPodkrepa Confederation of Labour, The Left! Representatives Meet in Burgas

At a Thursday meeting with representatives of the Podkrepa Confederation of Labour in Burgas (on the Black Sea coast), The Left!'s candidates for MPs raised a series of questions. The focus of the talks was the European Union's Regulation on the monitoring, reporting and verification of carbon dioxide emissions from maritime transport - part of the Grean Deal.

The coalition's top-of-the-list candidate in Burgas, Rumen Petkov, defined the regulation in question as "another crime, with the direct involvement of our MEPs and especially those of GERB." In short, the 2023 document provides for brutal fees to be paid from January 1, 2024, for ships with a gross tonnage of more than 5,000 tonnes, and from 2025 the fees will also be paid for offshore ships with a gross tonnage of 400 tonnes and more, Petkov said.

This makes shipping and services more expensive, hence all products for which Bulgarian producers use imported raw materials, he argued. "We are again favouring Turkiye and other countries with the criminal Green Deal, we will make our grain absolutely uncompetitive, as, in order to export it, ships will have to pay for these so-called "harmful emissions". In other words - another blow to the Bulgarian economy," Petkov added.