site.btaSocial Partners Demand Electricity Compensations for Businesses in 2025, Threaten National Protests

The social partners (employers and trade unions consisting of the Bulgarian Industrial Capital Association, the Bulgarian Industrial Association, the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Confederation of Employers and Industrialists, the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria and the Podkrepa Confederation of Labour) insist on an immediate decision by the government to continue offering compensations over the excessively high electricity prices throughout 2025 as well, the Bulgarian Industrial Association said on its website on Wednesday.

The demand is for compensations of excessive expenditures by each non-household electricity consumer, bringing the price of electricity for industry at least close to that of the regulated market, with this happening between January of this year and the time the price is brought back to normal. Compensation "must be immediate, adequate, fair, and for all." Another demand is for additional measures to limit the damage to the Bulgarian economy from the surge in the prices of electricity and other energy carriers.

"If this is not done, on 15 January 2025 we will rise in a National Protest against the non-competitive price of electricity for enterprises," the social partners point out and stress that the protest will not be political.

Earlier in the day, the Association of the Organizations of Bulgarian Employers said employers are demanding that electricity compensation for businesses continue through 2025, otherwise they are coming out with the unions in a national protest.