Bulgaria Gears Up for the Euro: Essential Cash Register and Vending Machine Updates (KEY DATES)
With Bulgaria preparing to adopt the euro as its official currency, changes in how retail transactions are processed are on the horizon
The four nationally-represented employers' organizations in Bulgaria - BIA, BCCI, BICA and CEIB – have asked the government to suspend payments above market prices for electricity generated by AES Galabovo and ContourGlobal Maritza East 3 power plants.
The two lignite coal-fired plants, owned by U.S-based AES and ContourGlobal, respectively, are popularly known in Bulgaria as the American power stations.
The employers want the government to cap the purchase prices for electricity produced by the two plants at market levels until the European Commission decides on whether payments above those levels constitute illegal state aid, investor.bg reported on Tuesday.
Bulgaria’s energy regulator DKEVR asked the EU Commission in the summer of 2014 to state its position on the preferential power purchase prices agreed with the two power plants. The employers associations asked the Commission the same question last month.
The heads of the four employers’ associations alerted the Chief Prosecutor’s Office last week about alleged irregularities in the energy sector, including the sale of the two thermal power plants in the Maritsa Iztok coal mining and energy complex to the US-based investors.
According to Vasil Velev, Chairman of the Bulgarian Industrial Capital Association (BICA), Bulgaria is granting illegal state aid in the amount of BGN 333 M a year to the two power plants, thus increasing the electricity bills of Bulgarian industrial enterprises, investor.bg said.
Bulgaria has reached a strategic financing agreement with the American Citibank for the construction of Units 7 and 8 at the Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant
Energy Minister Zhecho Stankov shared encouraging news for Bulgaria’s energy sector, highlighting that financial institutions are prepared to provide funding eight times greater than what is required for the construction
Energy Minister Zhecho Stankov has firmly criticized the 2022 agreement between state-owned Bulgargaz and Turkish company Botas, arguing that there was no objective reason to enter into such a deal
Authorities have launched a wide-ranging investigation into the controversial gas transmission agreement between Bulgaria’s state-owned Bulgargaz and the Turkish company Botas
The European Commission is preparing a new phase of green legislation that could significantly impact fuel prices across the EU
As of July 1, a new pricing period begins for household electricity, heating, and hot water in Bulgaria
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