AOBE’S OPEN LETTER ON THE ENERGY SECTOR REFORMS

The Association of the Organizations of Bulgarian Employers (AOBE) has come up with an open letter to the general public, the Prime Minister of Bulgaria, the Minister of Energy and the media addressing the reforms in the energy sector.

Liberalization in the energy sector has been going on for over 10 years and has not yet been completed. In the gas sector, the first steps towards an open, transparent and market-based model are still underway. Accelerated reforms in the energy sector took place during your second governmental mandate with Minister Temenujka Petkova. We insist for these reforms to continue in order to fully re-energize the energy sector in a competitive environment. The World Bank report also recommends steps for reform and full liberalization. The European Commission is preparing the Fourth Energy Package called "Clean Energy" but Bulgaria has unfinished commitments under the Third Energy Package, on the full liberalization of the electricity market and the gas market.

We call for the reform of the energy sector to continue, decisive action is strongly needed to prevent "high-efficiency cogeneration" from circumventing regulatory regimes and using publicly subsidized prices, which work solely for the exclusive production of subsidized energy and not as real factory generations - examples of which can be given to the functioning of the Vidahim and Svishtov TPPs, there are also problems with greenhouse farms. We also expect vigorous actions to change the scandalously unfavorable contracts for electricity consumers in Bulgaria with the so called “US power plants”.