The Bulgarian government has signed an agreement with energy sector workers who have been protesting plans for a transition to cleaner energy over fears of the effects the move would have on the mining sector.
The agreement, which was signed on October 3 after more than seven hours of negotiations between representatives of the protesters, the government, and leaders of political parties, will be sent to the parliament for approval.
It is not clear yet if the energy workers will end their most recent wave of protests that started on September 29. Trade union leader Dimitar Manolov told state broadcaster BNT that not all the unions representing the protesters signed the agreement with the government.
The protests were sparked by the adoption of plans for a green transition of the coal-mining regions Stara Zagora, Pernik, and Kustendil.
Miners and energy workers disagree with the plans and want the government to withdraw them, blocking key roads in Bulgaria for fifth day on October 3 to highlight their concerns.
The adoption of the plans was a condition for the European Commission to allocate 1.2 billion euros ($1.27 billion) in funds that would be used for the green transformation of the regions and the creation of new jobs for coal workers.
The plans must include a timetable for reducing the capacities of coal-burning power plants in order to be approved by the European Commission.
The plans, sent by the government in Sofia to Brussels on September 30, set the date for the closure of coal-powered power plants to 2038 -- a deadline that has previously been agreed.
Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov said after the negotiations that the government will not close any coal-burning power plants before 2038. He said, however, that “the market will decide which ones will stay.”
“Many people imagine that coal plants as we see them today are likely to continue [to operate] until 2038. This is impossible and it is high time to state it clearly,” Denkov said.
“Therefore, the discussion in Europe for several years is how to ensure a smooth transition from the situation today to the situation in 2038.”
The government says that coal power has no future because of the increasing cost of maintaining it. In 2023 the state-owned coal mines and coal-burning power plant posted a deep loss due to reduced sales, and expectations are that such losses will grow in the future.
Bulgaria is already late in submitting the territorial plans for the transition of the three coal regions and lost almost 100 million euros ($106 million) for 2022 in funds that would have come from the EU.
The deadline for the government to send its plans to Brussels was the end of September or it would lose another 800 million euros earmarked for 2023.
Prior to sending its plan to Brussels, Bulgaria had been the only EU member state that had not sent its plan.
Miners and energy workers met the decision to submit the plan with protests, although earlier in September they held negotiations with the government and agreed on measures to protect workers.
Among those measures is the creation of a state enterprise to which all those currently working for the state-owned mines and coal power plants would be reassigned.
The government also agreed to pay compensation totaling 36 months of salary for energy workers who decide to quit.
The demonstrations, however, have continued with the protesters saying that they want the plans to be reworked to better reflect their demands.
These include the adoption of a mechanism for state aid for the coal-burning plants to guarantee that they would continue to operate until 2038, dropping the country's commitment to reduce carbon emissions from coal power plants by 40 percent by 2026 and adoption of long-term energy strategy.
Experts quoted by Bulgarian media say that most of the demands are either already fulfilled or impossible to fulfill.
The country previously was among the last to submit its Recovery and Resilience Plan -- another European mechanism that provides funding for a transition to renewable energy. But this funding is now blocked following a parliament decision in December 2022 demanding that the government renegotiate Bulgaria's commitment to reduce carbon emissions from coal power plants by 40 percent by 2026.
The European Union aims to be climate-neutral -- meaning an economy with net-zero greenhouse-gas emissions -- by 2050. The bloc has allocated billions of euros in funding for its member states to fulfill this objective.