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From Bulgaria

05.04.2018 12:26

The State would not intervene in the CEZ deal in any way, Mr. Goranov said

AUTHOR: publics.bg

A hearing of the temporary committee of inquiry

The Bulgarian Minister of Finance announced that the Bulgarian state was not going to take part in the CEZ assets deal which started recently. The announcement was made at the meeting of the temporary committee of inquiry which aimed at establishing all the facts and conditions related to the privatization and the forthcoming sale of CEZ Group companies in Bulgaria. Mr. Goranov stated that the decision had been agreed upon with the PM Boiko Borisov. The reason was that the State considered its participation in the deal implausible. The Committee also listened to the opinion of the Prosecutor General, Sotir Tsatsarov, and the head of the Energy and Water Regulatory Commission, Ass. Prof. Ivan Ivanov.

As the Minister said, the executive power did not intend to intervene in private legal relations using legislative measures which do not fall within the jurisdiction of Bulgarian law. He also explained that the announcement of the intervention of the State in the deal, which was made about a month ago, was brought about by public expectations, as well as the “claims of the parties”. Mr. Goranov warned that people needed to be careful when they talked about that deal since it was a private one.

Sotir Tsatsarov, the Prosecutor General, informed the Bulgarian MPs that for the time being Ginka Varbakova and Slavcho Varbakov were subject to no pre-trial proceedings or cases. The same was true for “Inerkom Bulgaria” legal entity. The names of Ginka Varbakova and Slavcho Varbakov featured only in lease contracts cases with an Austrian company. Mr. Tsatsarov also said that Slavcho Varbakov had been charged with involvement in a tax crime related organized crime group. However, the case against him had been closed.

Ivan Ivanov informed the MPs at the temporary committee of inquiry that in the period between 2005 and 2018, the Energy and Water Regulatory Commission had carried out checks and audits in CEZ Bulgaria companies on a regular basis. As a result of these inspections, the Commission had imposed sanctions of 14,5mil.lv total on CEZ companies. As far as the CEZ deal was concerned, Mr. Ivanov reminded that the EWRC had no right to intervene in the deal at that moment, but it would be able to supervise the new owner’s activity.

TAGS: CEZ | deal