Bulgarian President to challenge renewable energy tariff fee at Constitutional Court
Bulgarian President Rossen Plevneliev said on December 12 that he would ask the Constitutional Court to rule on whether the 20 per cent fee on the feed-in tariff paid to solar and wind power electricity producers was legal.
Parliament approved the controversial proposal, tabled as an amendment to the 2014 Budget Act before the second reading vote, earlier this week.
Plevneliev said that would ask his legal council to analyse the proposal and possible avenues to challenge it. However, he said that he would not veto the Budget law.
He said that the way the proposal was tabled and voted was yet another example of lack of transparency in Parliament.
“The entire nation was witness to how – once again at the last second, without debate or an impact assessment – a change was made that will drastically worsen the business climate in Bulgaria, one that will not contribute to more predictability and transparency of institutions,” Plevneliev said in a statement.”
The solar and wind power industry groups estimated that the amendment would raise – or save, depending how one looks at it – about 170 million leva for the Budget, but put many of the smaller renewable energy producers on the verge of defaulting on their bank loans.
Plevneliev said that there was no clarity as to what use the money will be put to and that the Cabinet should “explain what exactly it plans to do” with the extra revenue.
