The coalition We continue the change and Democratic Bulgaria submit a proposal to terminate the concession of Rosenets port

We continue the change submit a proposal to terminate the concession of Rosenets port. This was announced to BTV by Kiril Petkov, co-chairman of "We continue the change".

We submit a proposal to bring back the control of the state in Rosenets port. Our proposal will terminate the Rosenets port concession, which was extended by the cabinet by 24 years without reasons," said Petkov.

In his words, "control over this port is key for Bulgaria". In the past there has always been doubt as to what control is.

Atanas Atanasov, for his part, commented that the goal is to end the contraband shipments of oil, which, according to him, take place there.

"Our goal is our entry into Schengen and this is a clear step in that direction," said Petkov, linking the concession decision to border control. "This step is in line with the EU's wartime sanctions regulation. In this way, we declare that Schengen is our goal, that Bulgarian key objects will not be handed over without reasons," he added.

"The Ministry of Transport has said that it can operate this port and there will be no problems with it. Instead of having concession fees, there will be income from operating the port," he reasoned.

Petkov expressed confidence that GERB-SDS will support this proposal. “It was surprising when this concession was increased. The Bulgarian border comes under Bulgarian control and we can now tell our European partners that they should not worry about this object," Petkov said.

According to him, "Lukoil" will continue to use the port, but not as a concessionaire, but will pay fees to the state.

The termination of the concession is expected to happen within a week.

Later, on the sidelines of the National Assembly, Boyko Borisov from GERB explained that the topic was discussed a day earlier in talks with "We continue the change". The idea itself was GERB-SDS, and the goal was to get the initiative out of the majority. It was also much more extensive and included the role of the special manager as well as other changes so that the state would actually manage the port. According to Borisov, the current proposal is hasty.

Back in March 2011, Rosenets port was given a concession to Lukoil Neftohim Burgas for a period of 35 years. The refinery tanks are unloaded in the port. The refinery itself owns the cargo storage area of the port terminal. "The granting of a concession creates an opportunity for the use of private capital for the reconstruction, rehabilitation and expansion of the existing port infrastructure and for the provision of transshipment activity through renovation and implementation of new technologies," the reasons for the concession were written at the time.