After a three-hour debate, the National Assembly of Bulgaria amended on Thursday the moratorium imposed on December 16 to cap energy prices. Therefore, prices of electricity, water and heating for household consumers will be frozen at December 16 levels and will not be raised until March 31, 2022. The moratorium will enter into force after its publication in the State Gazette.
On December 15, MPs froze the prices of electricity, heating and water to their levels from January 1, 2021.
An hour later, the director of the Prime Minister’s cabinet Lena Borislavova told the Council of Ministers that the moratorium was a “semantic contradiction” and said the newly formed parliamentary committee on the energy crisis would decide whether to re-vote. Immediately after the vote yesterday, an extraordinary meeting of the newly formed commission for the energy crisis was convened. The deputies decided to propose an amendment to the moratorium.
The chairman of the parliamentary group of “We Continue to Change” Andrei Gyurov proposed an amendment to the moratorium, because “yesterday’s decision did not take into account that the last approved prices are from July 1, 2021 and so we risk a dangerous legal precedent to change prices retrospectively.” He suggested that prices for household consumers be frozen at current levels.
In the end, Bulgaria’s lawmakers have voted to freeze electricity and heating prices for households until the end of March, at December 16 levels.
“The National Assembly imposes a moratorium on the prices of electricity, water services, and heating on the regulated market at the levels of December 16, 2021. The decision is valid until March 31, 2022,” according to the amendment, which will enter into force on the day of its promulgation.
