EC Refutes Claims of Daily Fine of BGN 9000 for Bulgaria over Energy Failures

Politics » BULGARIA IN EU | July 1, 2013, Monday // 21:06
Bulgaria: EC Refutes Claims of Daily Fine of BGN 9000 for Bulgaria over Energy Failures Photo by EPA/BGNES

The European Commission, EC, has rejected claims that Bulgaria faces a fine of BGN 9000 a day as of July 1 over irregularities in the energy sector.

According to Diana Chepisheva, Brussels correspondent of the Bulgarian National Radio, the EC made clear that it had no information about a deadline expiring on June 30.

The EC statement came in response to an announcement of Economy and Energy Minister Dragomir Stoynev on Sunday that Bulgaria's failure to separate the electricity transmission network from the Electricity System Operator, ESO, by June 30 would result in a fine by the EC.

In its Monday statement, the EC reminded that it had initiated a lawsuit against Bulgaria at the European Court of Justice back in January over the country's failure to transpose the EU's Third Energy Package and related directives on natural gas and electricity into national law.

The EC noted that it had asked the ECJ to impose a daily fine of EUR 8500 on Bulgaria, adding that there was no court decision yet.

Meanwhile, Marlene Holzner, Spokesperson for EU's Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger, explained that the ECJ usually took months to study a case and come up with a ruling.

She noted that the EU had no special internal deadline by which Bulgaria had been supposed to implement the Third Energy Package.

She made clear that Bulgaria had been required to spin off ESO from the National Electricity Company (NEK) by March 1, 2012.

"We do not know of any deadline expiring on June 30 – we have no such deadline," Holzner stated.

In his Sunday statement, Stoynev blamed the delay of the spin-off of ESO from NEK on the caretaker government.

He suggested that the caretaker government had deliberately blocked the spin-off procedure by restructuring the Board of Directors of ESO and amending its articles of associations 2 days before he assumed the office of Energy Minister.

Stoynev informed that ESO would move to finalize the change of ownership and the transfer of its shares to the new owner, the Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH), in the coming week, adding that Bulgaria faced a penalty of BGN 9000 a day by the EC until the completion of the transaction.

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Tags: Marlene Holzner, European Commission, fine, Third Energy Package, Gunther Oettinger, Dragomir Stoynev, Economy and Energy Minister, National Electric Company, Electricity System Operator

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