site.btaMiners and Energy Workers Block Roads in Stara Zagora

Representatives of a newly established non-profit association of miners and energy workers briefly blocked road arteries in Stara Zagora region on Wednesday, said the association. Protesters from the Maritsa East Energy  Complex blocked the traffic of the passage to the main Stara Zagora-Dimitrovgrad road, which is also an approach to the Trakia Motorway.

Stanimir Georgiev, Chair of the Management Board of the association, said that their main demands are the removal of carbon payments from the plants in the Maritsa Basin until the construction of a carbon capture plant. According to him, this will regulate prices of electricity generated from coal-fired power plants. He emphasised that it is the only resource for the production of electricity currently available to Bulgaria.

The second demand is the implementation of the concession contract of Maritsa East Mines, as an integral part of it should be the reclamation of the land in the Complex, with one part of the land to remain agricultural land and the rest to be included in the Forest Fund, as it is under the concession contract.

The protesters also spoke out against the entry of household consumers into the free market, which, according to them, "will lead to unthinkable price increases and unaffordable electricity bills."