Parties Should Pay for Bulgaria's N-Plant Referendum - EconMin

The cost for organizing the upcoming referendum on the fate of the Belene Nuclear Power Plant project should be covered by the major political parties' state subsidies, according to Delyan Dobrev, Minister of Economy and Energy.

Dobrev has told Btv that he hoped the referendum would cost between BGN 20 M and BGN 30 M, adding that it would be probably paid by the ruling centrist-right GERB and the oppositional Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP).

The Economy Minister noted that BSP should have covered the whole cost, since GERB has never endorsed the referendum.

Dobrev has also revealed that the mysterious investor that recently emerged for the Belene project is yet to impress the Bulgarian government.

"What we have learned so far about the investment candidate does not satisfy our interest," he said, referring to the Global Power Consortium.

"Currently, we don't have a strategic investor, and the state has no money to build the Belene Nuclear Power Plant," he said.

The Bulgarian government scrapped the Belene NPP project earlier in 2012, declaring it economically unfeasible. The Bulgarian Socialist Party then launched a petition for a referendum on the Russian-Bulgarian project's fate.

he referendum is to take place in less than three months from now.

Discussions have been renewed recently on the abandoned Belene NPP project, with Rosatom subsidiary Atomstroyexport upping its claim against Bulgaria's National Electricity Co. to EUR 1 B and a mysterious investment fund emerging with an offer to take over the project.