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Boyko Borissov, leader of GERB, the largest party in Bulgaria’s ruling coalition, confirmed on Wednesday that the country will sell two Russian-made nuclear reactors to Ukraine.
Ukraine’s parliament passed a law on Tuesday that allows the country’s state nuclear power operator to buy the two Soviet-designed nuclear reactors VVER-1000 from Bulgaria for Ukraine’s Khmelnytskyi power plant.
Ukraine seeks to compensate for the loss of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which has six reactors and is considered the largest nuclear power plant in Europe.
Bulgaria bought the reactors more than ten years ago for its Belene nuclear power plant, a project it abandoned since.
The Ukrainian law does not specify the amount of the contract. Ukrainian officials have said Bulgaria had previously put the price of the two reactors at $600 million. The bill is expected to be footed by Western funds.
The pro-Russian Bulgarian Socialist Party, now a coalition partner to Borissov’s GERB, had previously staunchly opposed the sale of the reactors, as it nourishes hopes to revive the Belene project.
But Borissov said he did not expect BSP to create obstacles to the sale of the reactors.
The GERB leader said his party and BSP made mutual compromises for the sake of the country having a government.
As an example of compromise Borissov said his party didn’t react to the news that broke the same day that Social Minister Borislav Gutsanov and MEP Kristian Vigenin participated in a conference organised by the Russian Embassy, honoring a former Russian foreign minister and spy chief.
Gutsanov and Vigenin, both members of the leadership of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, attended the event titled “Transition from a unipolar to a multipolar world. Europe – the Balkans – Bulgaria”. The conference was attended by the Russian ambassador in Sofia Eleonora Mitrofanova, who gained notoriety with undiplomatic remarks about politicians she dislikes in Bulgaria.
The Russian Embassy organised the meeting on the occasion of the 95th anniversary of the birth of Yevgeny Primakov, former Russian Prime Minister and Foreign Minister and former Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Russia.
“Just as we tolerate Gutsanov meeting with Mitrofanova, BSP should tolerate what we have commitments towards our strategic partners. This is the price of compromise,” Borissov hammered out.
Analysts also consider the sale of the reactors a done deal.
“At first glance, there are no obstacles to the sale of the two Russian reactors that Bulgaria was supposed to use for the Belene plant,” Kaloyan Staykov, chairman of the Board of Directors of the Institute for Energy Management, told Euractiv.
He reminded that a decision to sell the reactors to Ukraine has already been made by the Bulgarian parliament, even though BSP, in opposition at that time, voted against.
If the BSP opposes the deal, the coalition may fall apart, Staykov said.
Such an outcome however is unlikely, because BSP is in a bad shape as it is losing its electorate, thus it fears new elections, political analysts say.
(Georgi Gotev | Euractiv.bg)
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Energy News Beat