Representatives of the business sector will take part in the work of the company boards of all state-owned energy firms, according to a decision adopted at a meeting between Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, Energy Minister Temenuzhka Petkova, Delyan Dobrev, Chair of the parliamentary energy committee, and employers’ associations.

Deputy Prime Minister Tomislav Donchev commented that the measure would help identify and downsize unnecessary costs at state-owned energy firms.

The participants in Wednesday’s meeting also agreed that the presence of employers’ associations in Bulgaria’s Commission for Energy and Water Regulation (KEVR) would increase.

They also agreed that legal amendments would pave the way for the introduction of a moratorium on the granting of preferential terms for the purchase of electricity, according to reports of the Bulgarian National Radio.

The participants in the meeting approved the establishment of a public register of all companies selling electricity at preferential tariffs.

They also decided that the preferential tariffs for renewable energy companies would be revoked in the case of establishing infringements on their part.

Business and government representatives and Borisov decided that a working group headed by Deputy Prime Minister Tomislav Donchev, which would also include Energy Minister Temenuzhka Petkova, Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov, Delyan Dobrev, Chair of the parliamentary energy committee, and representatives of employers’ associations, would draft a road map for reforms in the energy sector.

Kiril Domuschiev, head of the Confederation of Employers and Industrialists in Bulgaria (CEIBG), Vasil Velev, Chair of the Bulgarian Industrial Capital Association (BICA), and Tsvetan Simeonov, Chair of the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI), made clear that they still demanded the resignation of Ivan Ivanov, Chair of KEVR, according to reports of the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency (BTA).

They informed that they had not decided yet whether or not a protest would be held at the end of September over the increase in electricity prices for industrial consumers.