Energy Minister Rossen Hristov and representatives of employer organizations concurred that compensation payments for high electricity prices should continue but in a more effective version. The sides agreed that the compensations stabilized industry, which helped to keep jobs and enhance the competitiveness of Bulgarian companies as evidenced by a tangible increase in export, wages and budget revenues.
They discussed practices deployed by other EU countries and their possible introduction in Bulgaria.
A working group led by the Energy Ministry will draw up an even more effective mechanism for applying the compensation programme with a direct impact on reducing inflation, on energy efficiency and on increasing the share of renewable energy sources for self-consumption. The expert working group will first meet next week.
All non-household end-customers are fully compensated until the year's end for the difference between the real average monthly price on the Day Ahead segment of the Independent Bulgarian Energy Exchange and a base load price of BGN 200 per MWh.
Employers have clear priorities for developing industry and protecting the interests of both businesses and end customers. "These priorities are fully supported by the Energy Ministry, which ensures a close cooperation at management and expert level with a common goal - the efficient use of public funds," Hristov said.
The employer organisations reiterated that the compensations were not aid, but a form of paying back surplus profits resulting from the distorted market.
The meeting was attended by representatives of the Bulgarian Industrial Capital Association, the Bulgarian Industrial Association, the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Bulgarian Federation of Industrial Energy Consumers, the Confederation of Employers and Industrialists in Bulgaria, and the Union for Private Economic Enterprise.