Bulgarian Minister of Economy, Energy and Tourism Traicho Traikov has conceded that shale gas prospecting implies risks, saying that the aim is to evaluate them correctly so as to keep the dangers to a minimum.

In a Thursday interview for the morning broadcast of state-owned TV channel BNT, he added that the report on shale gas requested by Prime Minister Boyko Borisov was rather formal and did not merit discussion at that stage.

Asked to comment on the anticipated hikes in power rates in Bulgaria, Traikov said that a coal power plant investment plan had been prepared over the last few months under which all coal-fired plants were supposed to buy all carbon dioxide emissions as of 2013.

He went on to remind that Bulgaria, together with a number of other countries, had won the right to buy 30%, not 100% of the carbon emission quotas.

Traikov further specified that the percentage would rise gradually until 2020, meaning that "the increase in power tariffs in 2013 will be much lower than the 23% hike that would have been necessitated if we had to buy 100% of the quotas."

On a separate note, Bulgaria's Minister of Economy, Energy and Tourism sided with Prime Minister Boyko Borisov's statement in the Czech Republic that European countries in the grip of a crisis must lower wages and pensions to their levels in Bulgaria.

"There are things in politics that are rarely said but very much hold true", Traikov argued, "and this is one of them."

"Unfortunately, it if hard to explain people in Bulgaria why we have to be as financially disciplined", he added.

Traikov also noted that Bulgaria had been drained of huge financial resources throughout the year as parent companies started to pull out capital from Bulgaria to meet operating expenses.

The minister stressed that, although it was bad for the country, such pull-outs of capital also meant that the companies were in good financial health.

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