Bulgarian MPs Pass Energy Efficiency Act

The Members of the Bulgarian Parliament passed Tuesday at second reading the Energy Efficiency Act.

The act was the first item on the agenda of the emergency parliamentary sitting.

Last week, during consultations with the President, parliamentary represented parties agreed to hold sessions at least for another week to be able to work on the most important pending bills – for energy and energy efficiency.

Their adoption will make it possible for the State Commission for Energy and Water Regulation, DKEVR, to lower electric power prices.

However, the Bulgarian Socialist Party, BSP, and its Coalition for Bulgaria, declared Tuesday they will be boycotting the agenda since they deemed it inadequate for what the public is demanding. The far-right, nationalist Ataka also asked for postponing the sitting but the majority overruled it and passed the amendments.

They provide for the preparation of a national plan for increasing the number of buildings with nearly zero energy consumption; introducing certificates for projected energy characteristics; energy certificates for buildings in use or parts of them, and the establishment of a system for independent control of these certificates.

The sitting was labeled "emergency" as last Thursday, Bulgaria's Parliament approved the resignation of the government of Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, and his ruling Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria party, GERB, amidst unprecedented since 1997 protest rallies against unbearable utility bills and wide-spread poverty that turned into a civil unrest against the political model of ruling the country.

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