Bulgaria does not give up its coal plants, Energy Minister Temenuzhka Petkova said on February 24 after a meeting with the trade unions, which discussed the conditions under which the country would accept the so-called “Green Deal” of the European Commission for a carbon-free economy. The CITUB and Podkrepa unions called on the country not to agree unconditionally with all of Brussels' demands and offered three red lines, from which the Bulgarian position should not recede, BNT reported.

Extending state aid to the country’s coal plants after 2025, in order not to have an increase in the price of electricity and not to close an entire sector of the economy, is one of the conditions that unions demand to be included in the Bulgarian position in the negotiations on the "green deal" with Brussels.

The Energy Minister assured that Bulgaria will protect the interests of the coal industry.