site.btaUPDATED GERB Representatives Walk Out of Emergency Security Council Meeting

GERB Floor Leader Desislava Atanasova and Energy Committee Chairman Delyan Dobrev, MP of GERB, walked out of Thursday's meeting of the Security Council with the Council of Ministers. Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov called an emergency meeting to discuss the risks of an immediate revocation of the exemption of the Lukoil Neftochim refinery in Burgas from an EU ban on the processing of Russian oil.

The other participants in the Security Council meeting are National Assembly Chair Rosen Zhelyazkov, Foreign Policy Committee Chair Boyko Borissov, EU Affairs Committee Chair Kiril Petkov, Economic Policy Committee Chair Hamid Hamid and Movement for Rights and Freedoms Floor Leader Delyan Peevski.

Peevski also walked out later on.

Atanasova told reporters: "It would be completely pointless for us to stay because all the fears we have voiced for many months were confirmed by the security services' reports."

"It emerged that Lukoil was ready to switch to all non-Russian oil as of yesterday, but that changed abruptly after [Tuesday's] Energy Committee sitting and it is still refining a huge percentage of Russian oil. It became clear that deliveries of non-Russian, non-Urals crude oil are possible. This comes as no surprise to us and it would be a waste of time to stay at this impromptu Security Council which confirms everything we have been saying for the last year and a half," Atanasova commented.

Delyan Dobrev also told reporters that Lukoil Neftochim could have switched to non-Russian oil "as of yesterday", while operating at reduced capacity, which would still have met the country's requirements. "It emerged from the meeting that although the EU sanctions and the derogation allow refined oil products of Russian origin to be sold only in Bulgaria and in Ukraine, over 50% of Lukoil's products are exported worldwide. The cargo of dozens of tankers is transferred at sea and their destination is not known. This is a huge scandal. I am sure this will be further investigated," he said.

"We have referred this type of deals, which contravene the exemption and the sanctions, to the prosecution service and the State Agency for National Security," he said.

Dobrev also raised the issue of a possible coordination between Lukoil and some of the parliamentary forces.

"We can see that Lukoil acts in line with the way certain parties vote. I will name them now. Our proposal was rejected in the Energy Committee by BSP for Bulgaria and Vazrazhdane, which voted against or abstained, which is not a surprise, and by Continue the Change, which is not a surprise either. The surprise came from Democratic Bulgaria, who explain on television that they are in favour of scrapping the derogation, but vote against or abstain," he said.

Atanasova and Dobrev were referring to a sitting of the parliamentary Energy Committee on Tuesday when it rejected, by a vote of 5-4, with five abstentions, a motion to scrap Lukoil's exemption from the EU ban on Russian oil within three days from the entry into force of a bill moved by Delyan Dobrev on November 10. His proposal came in the wake of the release of an international report saying that the Kremlin had generated EUR 1 billion in profits from fuel exports through Bulgaria and Lukoil.

In 2022, the European Commission granted Bulgaria a derogation from the EU embargo on oil imports from Russia due to the country's specific geographic exposure. Under the effective legislation, the exemption is to be revoked on October 1, 2024, three months ahead of the initial December 31, 2024 deadline.