Bulgarian MPs Revive Belene Nuclear Plant Project

The Bulgarian parliament on Thursday voted overwhelmingly in favour of dropping the moratorium on the construction of the Belene Nuclear Power Plant, NPP.

A total of 172 out of 240 MPs supported the proposal by the ruling GERB party of Prime Minister Boyko Borissov which gives Energy Minister Temenuzhka Petkova the mandate to restart the process of seeking potential investors.

Only 14 MPs from the Movement for Rights and Freedoms voted against the proposal and two abstained.

The GERB proposal gave specific instructions for the negotiations, which were first announced by Borissov during his visit to Moscow last week.

These include guarantees that the project will be executed in collaboration with a strategic investor and that it will abide by market rules, without state guarantees.

More specifically, that means that there won't be any state-guaranteed contracts for the purchase of energy at fixed prices, and the assets and liabilities of the new holding will be separated from those of the state-owned National Electric Company, NEC and the Bulgarian Energy Holding, BEH.

A similar legislative proposal from the Bulgarian Socialist Party was voted down by MPs. The Socialists' draft legislation did not include any of GERB's requirements for potential investors and limitations on the role of the state.

Socialist MP Zhelyo Boychev argued in parliament that the ruling party's proposal "ties the hands of your own negotiator".

"We are proposing such a solution because we want to test if the project is still alive, if there is economic interest in it," GERB MP Danail Kirilov responded.

The search for strategic investors has attracted four proposals, according to the ruling party and cabinet members.

However, one of...