Bulgarian President and Bulgarian PM in Dispute over North Macedonia and Bulgargaz
President Rumen Radev described the prime minister's visit to Skopje as hasty. Kiril Petkov did not agree with Radev's assessment.
Commenting on the dismissal of the director of Bulgargaz, the president noted that he was worried about inflation - how Bulgarians are coping with rising prices and high bills, as well as the future of energy.
The Entire Management of Bulgargaz has been Replaced
Rumen Radev believes that when the government changes the management of companies, it must ensure that there will be no private intermediaries in the supply of natural gas and that Bulgaria will receive it at better prices. And warned:
“In this activity, the cabinet should not be tempted by the inherited management model, which used the services, the boards, the regulators to argue and promote private interests, which it accused of violating the law. Because if the same approach is used, we will not achieve any different results from Borissov's legacy.”
Prime Minister Kiril Petkov assured that he does not intend to return to old management practices, but defended the dismissal of the director of Bulgargaz.
“It was the right decision and from now on people need to know that this will be the way we do things. Anyone who tries to make wrong decisions that will cost all Bulgarians, if we can prove that this is a fact, we will not hesitate for a second to make exactly the same decisions for all other companies.”
“The new board of Bulgargaz, the first thing it did, was to reduce the price by 18% as a proposal to the Energy and Water Regulatory Commission (EWRC).”
Highlights of the Joint Meeting between Prime Ministers of Bulgaria and North Macedonia
The president described the prime minister's visit to the Republic of North Macedonia as “hasty” or “rushed”.
“I have had frank conversations with him. It is also important that Bulgarian diplomacy fully realizes its professional capacity, does not trust external expertise and does not succumb to external pressure.”
Kiril Petkov disagreed with Rumen Radev's assessment and described his visit to Skopje not as hasty but as “terribly late”.
“I would not tolerate delaying this visit, if we do not want the Balkans to remain the poorest, most corrupt, most uncoordinated place in the European Union, the approach must be changed,” said Kiril Petkov.
/BNR