site.btaEnergy Minister: Goal Is to Save as Much Money as Possible from National Recovery and Resilience Plan

Energy Minister Zhecho Stankov told Nova TV on Saturday that the goal is to save as much money as possible from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP).
 
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Innovation and Growth Tomislav Donchev announced on March 6 that early next week it will be announced which of the NRRP projects are dropped and assured that "no matter how many days of service this government has ahead of it, it will do everything necessary to reduce the damage from the potential loss of funds". 

"My maxim is that we should not lose money in the Energy part. The task I have been given by the prime minister and deputy prime minister is to fight for every single coin that is directed to the Bulgarian citizens," Stankov said. "Those projects for which procedures have been launched and beneficiaries selected, we will save them," he stressed. 

"It is important that we do not lose money under the NRRP. At the moment the money is blocked, because during the first government of Continue the Change such commitments were made, which firstly want to close the Bulgarian energy sector, even to lead to a blackout at certain times, secondly are deep in the pockets of Bulgarian households and thirdly could lead to the bankruptcy of the Bulgarian energy sector by demanding more than BGN 2 billion from it ahead of schedule," the minister said. 

Stankov said that the first payments were already being made to compensate people who were left without electricity as a result of the complicated weather situation and heavy rainfall on the second day of Christmas 2024. Residents of some settlements had no electricity for days. 

"We were committed to those people who were left in the dark during the New Year holidays to get compensation in the form of financial assistance from the state. These compensations are already being paid," Stankov said.

The energy minister said that the total amount of compensation is BGN 2.2 million for nearly 26,000 households.

According to Stankov, household bills will not rise even after the full liberalisation of the energy market. 

According to him, the ruling coalition is stable. In his opinion, there are no shocks, but adjustments between different political forces in the government. 

"What was put first by our leader when the coalition was formed was to bring the country back to normalcy," the minister said. According to him, for this to happen, first of all, there must be a balanced state budget that is people-oriented, with a pension increase of over 8%, with a salary increase in the public sector of over 5%.

He said there was no influence peddling through the state budget.