„Negotiations with the EU are in no way related to the actual closure,“, Environment Minister Yulian Popov said adamantly. In his words, there are given targets – 40% emission reduction.
“If we destroy it, it won’t change anything. If we leave it and we don’t achieve the goals, we’ll get into some kind of punitive decree, some kind of breach of contract, and nothing much will happen. The fact that it is there is merely an indicative fact. That is, we are not going to cut and destroy any plant, we are not going to tear it down, unless the company that owns it does, and that will happen too, because the private plants, when they start losing money, they will just shut down – it has nothing to do with the government,“, the environment minister stated.
The minister believes that the state-owned coal plant should be preserved as a strategic reserve and serviced as such. Regarding the mines, he added:
„Even if everything went out of business tomorrow, the mines should continue to employ at least 3,000 people for 10 years. That’s an assured workforce because burying, levelling these sites requires that workforce for 10 years. Whatever we do, those jobs are secure.“
According to him, the withdrawal of the territorial plans is possible, but it will lead to a loss of about BGN 2 billion, without getting anything in return. According to the environment minister, these plans have been developed for 2 years already in extremely thorough consultations with everyone. They are general, these are the frameworks, he explained and emphasized that the specific projects, initiatives and constructions have not yet been defined.
Regarding the requested no-confidence vote, Popov said this is a normal procedure, especially in the pre-election period, when certain parties want to win votes from a hot topic for the upcoming elections:
„This always happens in a pre-election situation, when political parties that do not have enough support or enough rational arguments for their own policies take advantage of the completely legitimate concerns of a section of people, in this case coal workers, and they join them, igniting them.”
According to him, any public dissatisfaction should be at the center of the government’s work.
