The European Commission allocated €1.2 billion on Thursday for the transformation of Stara Zagora, Kyustendil, and Pernik in Bulgaria under the Just Transition Fund.
“This is a very serious sum intended for the development of these regions. If we had delayed one more week, these funds would have disappeared, just as some €100 million disappeared at the end of last year because no documents were submitted by the caretaker government. This is great news for Bulgaria and for the people who live in these regions,” Prime Minister Nikolai Denkov commented.
The government stated that these funds must reach the regions as quickly, efficiently, and transparently as possible, as more than 15,000 jobs are expected to be preserved and created.
According to the cabinet’s plans, over the next six years, this money will be spent on “activities to improve mine terrain for industrial needs, support for workers after mapping their skills, finance energy efficiency with a focus on vulnerable households, develop industrial parks and zones, development of production of components and electricity from renewable sources, and support for the diversification of the economy through new enterprises”.
Investments from large enterprises will also be supported in the Stara Zagora region, as more than 20 companies have expressed preliminary interest.
In September, miners and energy workers staged protests provoked by the government’s decision to send Bulgaria’s territorial plans related to the energy transition in the coal regions to the European Commission. For these plans to be approved in Brussels, they had to include a timetable for reducing the capacity of coal-fired power stations. At the beginning of October, after more than six hours of conversation, the protesters signed an agreement with the authorities.
The conditions demanded by the coal workers were formulated in seven points, and the state undertook not to administratively close down either coal or power plants.
However, Prime Minister Nikolai Denkov said the plans clearly stated that the government would not close coal plants before 2038, but “gradually, some of them will drop out of the energy system because it will not be economically feasible for them to operate anymore”.
The government did not agree with the protesters to rewrite the Recovery and Resilience Plan into the decarbonisation part of the energy transition because, in doing so, the state would lose billions of euros.
Ultimately, the state sent the territorial plans for a just transition within the deadline stipulated by European legislation.
(Antonia Kotseva | Euractiv.bg)
