PAST EVENTS
On the 7th of April 2014, EUFORES held a Bulgarian Parliamentary Workshop, in association with MEP Antonyia Parvanova and George Naydenov, NDSV Vice-President. The workshop started with with an introduction to the workshop and its framework, the Keep on Track! project, by Jan Geiss, EUFORES Secretary General.
The floor opened to George Naydenov, host of the workshop, who noted that there are problems in Bulgaria to comply with the EU 20% renewable energy target for 2020. In relation to achieving the targets, he stated that energy prices must be formed by a free market. The following speaker, Rumen Gechev, Bulgarian Member of Parliament, rather stressed the need to go towards a low-carbon future. He mentioned that Bulgaria is very advanced in energy efficiency, ahead of more developed European countries. Professor Atanas Tasev said that it is necessary to put a focus on RES considering what has happened in Ukraine. He referred to the longstanding importers policy of Bulgaria. Mr. Tasev believed there were faults in the implementation of RES to the market, leading to a current freeze in investments, and he stressed the need for a consensus between energy policies.
In the second half of the workshop, Filip Jirous showed the statistics on the implementation status of the Bulgarian RES targets for 2020. He noted that more than half of the barriers facing RES in Bulgaria are linked to the political and economic framework. Valizar Kiriakov stated that the 'polluter pays' principle should be enforced to counteract the current cost inequalities on the energy market. Meglena Rusenova stressed the need for investment security in the Bulgarian RES sector. Georgi Stefanov rather looked into shared good practices on how to successfully develop RES in Bulgaria, detailing this with a set of policy recommendations.
Please find the workshop presentations on the conference website link below.
