The deputies of the Energy Committee in the National Assembly again failed to gather a quorum. As at the previous meeting of the committee, 10 deputies registered, which again turned out to be insufficient to hold the meeting of the committee. The changes to the Renewable Energy Law are related to the receipt of about 437 million euros under the Recovery and Sustainability Plan, wrote news.bg.
What does the Renewable Energy Law, introduced by the Council of Ministers, provide?
The draft law mainly aims to complete the transposition of the Directive into Bulgarian legislation, the deadline for which was 21.05.2025. On 24 July 2025, the European Commission sent a formal letter of formal notice to the Republic of Bulgaria to initiate infringement proceedings No. 2025/0198 under Art. 258 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. The procedure is for failure to notify the European Commission on time of the measures for the full transposition of Directive (EU) 2023/2413 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 October 2023 amending Directive (EU) 2018/2001, Regulation (EU) 2018/1999 and Directive 98/70/EC with regard to the promotion of energy from renewable sources and repealing Council Directive (EU) 2015/652.
The bill also proposes the implementation of part of key stage 96 under Reform 6 "Increasing electricity from renewable sources" and of key stage 178 under Reform C8.R5: "Electric mobility" of the Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP), as well as measure 20 of the Administrative Burden Reduction Plan, adopted by Decision No. 233 of the Council of Ministers of 2024. Changes have also been made, introducing requirements of the Law on the Introduction of the Euro in the Republic of Bulgaria.
The draft law follows the intention set out in the Directive - by adapting the existing legal framework regarding the promotion of energy from renewable sources, to create conditions for achieving the objective of climate neutrality in the Union by 2050, as well as an intermediate objective to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels.
In this regard, the draft law reflects the Union's overall objective for the share of energy from renewable sources of 42.5%, as amended by the Directive, as well as the specific objectives set for the individual sectors, including electricity sector, heating and cooling sector and transport sector.
In order to achieve the set objectives and in response to the requirements of the Directive, the draft law adapts the existing national legal framework, including in the following areas:
- Facilitating the use of agreements for the purchase of electricity from renewable sources, for the use and production of energy from renewable sources in buildings, etc.
- Accelerating cooperation between Member States to promote energy from renewable sources in the form of joint projects.
- Supplementing the requirements for the development of zones for the accelerated implementation of energy from renewable sources, including encouraging the participation of local communities in the implementation of energy projects in priority areas.
- Providing the possibility of applying a longer period of validity of the opinion on accession with regard to producers of electricity from wind energy. In this regard, a change has been proposed in Art. 26, para. 3 of the ZEVI.
- Stimulating decentralized systems for the production and storage of electricity.
- Complementing the existing framework related to guarantees of origin of energy from renewable sources.
- Creating a scheme for obligations of fuel suppliers.
- Creating a mechanism to allow operators of publicly accessible electric charging points to contribute to the fulfillment of the obligations established for fuel suppliers by providing electricity from renewable sources.
- Developing heating and cooling systems, in particular district heating and cooling systems, with a view to balancing the electricity system.
- Adjusting the promotion measures to the current objectives and metrics in relation to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and preventing biodiversity loss.