The day in 3 news: Brussels may back Sofia over Belene: Timmermans, Health Inspector proposes green certificates, Farm subsidies hinge on environmental pledges

Frans Timmermans, Deputy President of EC, visited Bulgaria on Friday

The day in 3 news: Brussels may back Sofia over Belene: Timmermans, Health Inspector proposes green certificates, Farm subsidies hinge on environmental pledges

Frans Timmermans, Deputy President of EC, visited Bulgaria on Friday

© Цветелина Белутова


On Friday the campaign bus of We Continue the Change left Sofia for the first tour of the new party across Bulgaria. Members of the movement, led by Assen Vassilev and Kiril Petkov, left from Sofia and will visit towns in North Bulgaria in coming weeks. The campaign did not start well for the BSP as socialist leader Kornelia Ninova announced she has contracted Covid-19 for the second time and will enter a two-week isolation.

Brussels ready to back Bulgaria over Belene nuclear project, deputy EC head says

Frans Timmermans, the deputy President of the European Commission, told bTV on Friday that if Bulgaria commits to develop the Belene Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), Brussels may back the project. Mr Timmermans attended a conference named "Green Transition - Decision and Challenges for Bulgaria" in Sofia, where he said that there was "no future for coal". The Belene NPP project has been dragging for over 40 years and has already cost Bulgaria over a 1 billion euro of investment, paid to the Russian nuclear technology suppliers. It has been cancelled and revived several times, most recently - in 2018 by the GERB government.

National Health Inspector Angel Kunchev proposes green certificates

He claimed that they are needed because of the rising number of Covid infections and the increasing occupancy of hospital beds by Covid patients nationwide. Kunchev said that green certificates for completed vaccination rounds ought to apply to education, social and cultural institutions, sports facilities and other public places. He warned that otherwise the country should return to partial lockdowns.

A quarter of farm subsidies will depend on farmers' environmental commitments

That was announced by deputy Agriculture minister Yavor Gechev during the "Green Transition - Decision and Challenges for Bulgaria" conference on Friday. Until now, money under the so-called First Pillar (direct payments, part of the Common Agricultural Policy - ed.) was given in principle to guarantee income, but this will no longer be the case. According to Mr Gechev, 7 percent of a farm's territory must have environmental commitments in order to receive direct payments at all.

On Friday the campaign bus of We Continue the Change left Sofia for the first tour of the new party across Bulgaria. Members of the movement, led by Assen Vassilev and Kiril Petkov, left from Sofia and will visit towns in North Bulgaria in coming weeks. The campaign did not start well for the BSP as socialist leader Kornelia Ninova announced she has contracted Covid-19 for the second time and will enter a two-week isolation.

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