The success of this country at the December European Council in Brussels, when the Climate - Energy Package was approved, is a result of the clearly formulated Bulgarian national interest, the good interaction with the Central and East European (CEE) countries and the active dialogue with the EU French Presidency and the European Commission.

Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev said this Friday during Question Time in Parliament taking a question of Plamen Panayotov, Bulgarian New Democracy MP, regarding Bulgaria's positions on the agenda of last 2008 session of the EU member state leaders.

The packages's initial variant proposed by the European Commission was too difficult for the Bulgarian energy sector and for the Bulgarian consumers as a price, Stanishev reminded. According to him, the energy package and the ambition of the EU to be a global leader in decreasing the carbon dioxide emissions, for increasing the share of the renewable energy sources (RES) and many other aspects has its price.

"This price was difficult for Bulgaria in the initial variant prepared by the European Commission and we, jointly with other eight CEE countries, formulated clearly our positions and this enabled us to carry out active and real negotiations on this issue," Stanishev said.

Bulgaria has protected successfully its interests through defending the principle of solidarity regarding the redistribution of auction rights, which takes into account Bulgaria's contribution to decreasing green houses gas emissions in the 1995-2005 period.

Fifteen per cent of this common package, which in its essence is a compensation for the CEE countries, is for Bulgaria, which ranks this country third after Poland and Romania.

Among the achievements of this country in the energy package, Stanishev underscored the point of auction in electricity production, the derogation for the Bulgarian side - postponement of applying the plan by three years; setting 2016 as the time for a new meeting of reevaluation, as well as the start from much lower levels of auctioning the noxious emission quotas - from 50 to 30 per cent.

Source: BTA