GERB with a new proposal: Cancellation of the derogation for "Lukoil" from the New Year

GERB proposes to drop the derogation entirely from January 1, 2024, Delyan Dobrev announced at a briefing in the parliament. He added that today in Brussels, Kiril Petkov announced that he is the one stopping Russian oil.

"After this statement, it can be considered that Kiril Petkov and the entire parliamentary group of "Continuing the change - Democratic Bulgaria" would support the abolition of the derogation. I, together with Boyko Borisov, current leader of GERB, and Delyan Peevski will introduce such a bill.", Dobrev pointed out, quoted by BTA. He spoke on the phone with Hristo Ivanov, who said that if Boyko Borisov supported him, he would also support him.

Dobrev announced that tomorrow he is convening an extraordinary meeting of the Committee on Energy in the Parliament.

"In the last two days, several events have overlapped - first of all, yesterday Finance Commissioner McGuinness said that he welcomes and encourages the repeal of the derogation for Russian oil, as quickly as possible, because both the European institutions, as well as the Bulgarian ones, are investigating what is going on is happening with Russian oil, which is delivered in huge quantities to Bulgaria," said Dobrev.

He pointed out that in the last year and a half, Bulgaria is the fourth largest customer for Russian oil in the world - from 15 million barrels, our country has started buying 45 million barrels. What happens to these huge quantities of Russian oil - apparently, they are not sold on the Bulgarian market, more than 60 percent of them are exported. A third of these exports go to the high seas, where they are transshipped onto other ships. That is why we are already receiving signals from the European Commission, pointed out Dobrev.

According to him, the derogation was never necessary for Bulgaria, it benefits Lukoil and Putin's regime.

Today, from the participation of Kiril Petkov in Brussels as a key speaker of the European Policy Center, there Mr. Kiril Petkov said that he is the one who stops Russian oil. Since Mr. Petkov has already announced that he is suspending Russian oil, we believe that he would support our initiatives, which he and his parliamentary group have so far rejected three times in a row, Dobrev said.

Delyan Dobrev, together with Boyko Borisov, Delyan Peevski, Yordan Tsonev, have signed the bill to amend and supplement the Law on Control over the Implementation of Restrictive Measures and propose that the derogation be abolished from January 1, 2024 in its entirety.

Dobrev explained that they had agreed at the end of July that a bill to cancel the derogation would be submitted within a month. Then, together with Kiril Petkov, they wrote the texts of the bill. Mrs. Lena Borislavova personally made the last corrections to the texts, looked at them, approved them, and we submitted them, Dobrev pointed out. According to him, this draft law for the cancellation of the derogation in a period of one month somehow became 12 months. Dobrev commented that the adopted bill to cancel the derogation by March 15 does not contain what the leaders had agreed on in July, because there are no texts on the termination of exports from January 1. In addition, the suspension of the derogation is not from March 1, but from March 15, commented Dobrev and expressed hope that PP-DB will support this proposal to cancel the derogation on January 1.

Kirill Petkov verbally supported today at 14:10 from Brussels, stating that he is the one who stops the supply of Russian oil. I hope he doesn't change his mind when he flies back, Dobrev also said.

In response to the new request to cancel the derogation, Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov stated that it has been clear for several months that the government is doing everything possible to keep the fuel market calm and, accordingly, to shorten the derogation as much as possible without creating risks. Dobrev is not interested in the possibility of risks, the prime minister commented on Delyan Dobrev's statement earlier today. "Yesterday I looked at the prices at the gas stations, they are lower than a month or two ago," the prime minister pointed out. According to him, if someone wants to play with the risks, it is his right, but then he will bear the responsibility accordingly.