Bulgarian PM Reluctant to Kick Out Power Utilities amid Protests

Bulgarian PM Boyko Borisov has said that at the time being there are no grounds for the termination of contracts with power distribution companies in the country.

Tuesday major Bulgarian cities have been once again gripped by thousand-strong rallies against what protestors have claimed to be excessively high electricity bills.

In Sofia, the protest this time over was organized by nationalist Ataka and VMRO parties.

In Varna, where the protest was organized by a civic comittee, citizens blocked major interesections of the city center.

Sunday, thousands had again come out in the streets of Sofia, Varna, Plovdiv and Burgas to protest against perceived irregularities in electricity billing.

The have called for an ousting of so-called power utilities from the country and a re-nationalization of the electricity grid, much in the recent example of Albania.

According to protesters, power distribution companies are abusing their monopoly position in their respective regions of Bulgaria, and are in addition drawing revenue out of the country.

Electric power in Bulgaria is distributed by local units of Czech CEZ company for the west, Czech Energo Pro for the north-east, and Austrian EVN for the south-west.

Commenting the events Tuesday, Borisov said that the cabinet and responsible overseeing agencie will ensure everything to enforce proper billing for customers.

He nevertheless said that at present there are no grounds for terminating contracts, blaming any disadvantages of those contracts to previous cabinets that had concluded them.