Miners protest in front of the National Assembly against the liberalization of electricity prices

Miners and energy workers from the Marishka coal basin went to a national protest rally today. The protesters came before the National Assembly and the Council of Ministers demanding the postponement of the liberalization of the electricity market for domestic consumers. The item is scheduled for a final vote in plenary today. Workers at “Bobov dol” TPP, “Brickel” TPP, and “Toplofikatsia-Pernik” joined the protest.

Workers in mines and coal plants are worried that they will lose their jobs this year, as the reform envisages that electricity from coal plants will drop out of the energy mix at the expense of RES.

Trade union organizations in the energy sector submitted a declaration to the National Assembly demanding the construction of a carbon dioxide capture plant. Thus, the plant will become competitive on the electricity market and it will be possible to prevent its closure, Stanimir Georgiev, chairman of the Association “Miners and Energetics Together”, explained to BNR.

“In many places in the world, installations for capturing carbon dioxide are currently being built. If the emissions are not paid for next year, the plants in the Mariska Basin can finance the installations themselves. The state must renegotiate the recovery plan,” said Georgiev and recalled , that coal plants made BGN 2.5 billion in profit during the pandemic.

In the plenary hall, the MPs will also discuss today a draft decision on the adoption of a Road Map for climate neutrality, which states that by 2050, a deep transformation of the national energy mix towards sources with low carbon emissions must be carried out. A decision will also be voted on until 2029 with money from the budget to finance the reclamation of land in the Mariska basin – it is planned that 200 million BGN will be allocated annually.

Because of the protest, changes are being made to the movement and parking of cars on “Todor Alexandrov”, “Tsar Osvoboditel” and “Knyaz Alexander Dondukov” boulevards, as well as on the parking lot of “Knyaz Alexander I” square.

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