Parliament approves reduction of EWRC members to five, opposition believes goal is to control committee

Parliament has finally reduced the composition of the EWRC from nine to five. This happened with amendments to the Energy Act adopted at second reading. The members of the regulator must have a good professional reputation. In the future, there will have to be two, instead of four, members of the commission with experience in the field of energy. We remind you that the requirement for legal experience for one of the commissioners is dropped, as well as for economic experience - also for one member of the EWRC.

It was difficult for nine people to analyze the proposals for price changes, to exercise control, now you are reducing them, what is the reason, Ramadan Atalay from the MRF asked. You are doing things very quickly, the consequences for the EWRC, if this is done, will be its complete disintegration, warned the representative of the movement.

The efficiency of the EWRC's nine-member staff is over BGN 2 billion in losses to BEH due to lobbying decisions of the commission, opposes Victoria Vasileva of the "There is such a people" PG, one of the proponents of the proposal. You cannot suggest that the EWRC has made wrong decisions and that is why BEH or NEK have suffered losses, if you continue to claim it, you will have to prove it in other institutions, Atalay replied.

According to GERB-UDF, the goal of reducing the composition of the regulator is to control and have full control over the commission. Their proposal to be members of the EWRC to nominate the President, Bulgarian non-profit legal entities registered in the public interest in the areas regulated by this law, the Law on Regulation of Water Supply and Sewerage and the Law on Consumer Protection was rejected. and nationally represented employers 'and workers' organizations.

I don't know why it is not accepted to give more people the opportunity to nominate members of the EWRC, commented one of the submitters of the proposal, Delyan Dobrev. He even suggested voting separately on the possibility of the head of state making his own nominations. The deadline for proposals has expired and there are only two candidacies submitted to the National Assembly, and this is another argument "for" our proposal so that there can be more competition, the MP added.

If you had proposed quotas for these people, I would have supported the proposal, commented Iva Miteva / ITN /.

Vasil Stefanov / PG "We continue the Change" / explained that there is no practice in the regulator to include representatives of NGOs and other organizations in the EU. He reminded that GERB rejected years ago exactly such an idea, which came from ABV.

When the truth is told, the whole truth must be told, Dobrev replied. It was then envisaged that all these organizations would give their proposals to the deputies and, if they recognize them, to submit them, he explained.

Tsoncho Ganev from "Vazrazhdane" considers the idea unsuccessful, because no one will be responsible for what the person would do to the EWRC. He also received a "remark" from the Speaker of the National Assembly Nikola Minchev for insulting Nastimir Ananiev from the PG "We Continue Change" and demanded an explanation for the sanction.

Emil Georgiev from "BSP for Bulgaria" pointed out that the trust in the EWRC is very low, so changes are needed. There is a three-month moratorium and we must make such changes to ensure fairer prices for household and non-household consumers in the future, he said.