In Bulgaria we currently witness a total lack of multilevel dialogue and non-compliance with the partnership principle for the development of strategic documents in the energy sector. The expert work of key sectoral commissions under the Advisory Council to the Council of Ministers for the Green Deal Implementation in Bulgaria is almost entirely suspended, while other commissions from the initially promised are yet not established. We have a practically suspended Energy Transition Commission (ETS) with members from environmental NGOs, ministries, trade unions, coal power plants, which is tasked with  exploring and modeling scenarios for decarbonisation of the energy sector and to develop a roadmap for the Bulgarian economy for reaching climate neutrality by 2050.

We see the good practice killed at the start and, instead of moving towards increased participation, we are moving towards less public participation and no active or meaningful involvement of civil sector stakeholders in energy policy processes; at the stage where conversations are ongoing and opportunities are still available.

We still don’t have а Citizen Monitoring Committee over the implementation of the Recovery Plan in Bulgaria, which we and NGO partners demanded many times. We want the Commissions under the Advisory Council to have at their disposal funds/resources to do additional assessments and modeling, as currently ETS depends on the (good) willingness of one of the affected coal power plants.  

For the development of the so-called Strategic vision for the energy sector 2023-2053, the interim government proposed and adopted weak and contradictory texts, eventually stating that the published document is not a strategy to avoid a proper public consultation process.