In order for Bulgarian citizens to have access to fuels at normal prices, there is technological time for this process to happen, said Asen Vassilev

Since the formation of this government, it has been a heavy compromise option for the country to move forward on several key goals – Schengen, the Eurozone, raising people’s incomes. All this is included in the government program, this government has a clear horizon of 18 months to fulfill these goals, said the Minister of Finance Asen Vassilev in the “Panorama” program of BNT.

He also commented on the decision to reject the draft law to drop the derogation within three days. “We had a normal conversation, there were two things that were talked about – one is that no more money should go to Lukoil and from there to Russia, and the other is not to raise fuel prices for Bulgarian citizens and to have enough time , to be able to switch to non-Russian oil. The decision actually protects both points. We are stopping exports, which stops a large part of the money for Russia as soon as possible – on January 1 next year. On March 1, which is technically the minimum period to be able to switch to non-Russian oil without jeopardizing the supply and supply of fuels in the country, the derogation is stopped completely,” explained the Minister of Finance.

According to him, in order for Bulgarian citizens to have access to fuel at normal prices, there is technological time for this process to happen. “There are reports from the Ministry of Energy, the Ministry of Economy, and the security services that analyzed these risks and gave a program that is optimal,” explained Asen Vasilev.

There are concerns about the budget, which, in my opinion, are unfounded and they are related to the inclusion of the revenues from the transmission fee for Russian gas in the revenue part, Asen Vassilev said about the decision that the draft state budget will be revised and submitted to the parliament again next week . “Colleagues have concerns, we took away these revenues, accordingly we reduced the capital program and investments. It still remains a record, but in this way the budget comes within the framework. When these revenues are realized, we will be able to make an update and complete our capital program as it was originally intended,” explained the finance minister.

Asen Vasilev also commented on the protests in Sofia against the Bulgarian Football Union. What I saw were extremely ugly scenes, I don’t think it’s normal for fans to set fire and throw bottles, and on the other hand, it’s also not normal for the police to beat people who have fallen to the ground, he noted.

“The prime minister released the deputy minister for operational activities, who led the operation in question, from there on the prime minister has the discretion of who should be in his team,” said Asen Vasilev about the request for the resignation of the minister of internal affairs.