Ognyan Atanasov: Bulgaria lacks political will to drive the just transition, but it has no alternative and is a chance for the affected regions

Vladimir Mitev, Malgorzata Kulbachevska-Figat

Ognyan Atanasov is Vice President of the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (KNSB) with the portfolio Social Protection, Safety and Health at Work. Fair Green Transition and Ecology”. He spoke to the website “Found in Transition”, which reports on the activities of Cross-border Talks, a cross-border journalism project on just transition in Central and South-Eastern Europe.

Ognyan Atanasov points out that the KNSB clearly sees the interest of the workers in the Maritsa East coal mining region in the absorption of Fair Transition funds and the implementation of this process, which would allow jobs to be preserved. However, Atanasov points out that there is a lack of political will to accelerate this process. Instead, parliamentary elections are constantly held, a stable government cannot be formed, problems are constantly postponed to the future, and solutions do not emerge. This is the main reason why the people of Bulgaria, and especially those working in the coal-mining regions, do not believe in a just transition and fall under the influence of populist parties.

Ognyan Atanasov reviews the current state of the just transition in Bulgaria as of autumn 2024. The interview took place at the end of October 2024.

Mr. Atanasov, how do you assess the course of the just transition in Bulgaria?

I would like to start by saying that ever since the Green Deal was announced, our trade union has reacted very quickly with proposals to the government and to the social partners to establish an advisory council on the European Green Deal with working committees on the different topics. This advisory council has now been in operation for three years. Within its framework, some quite important decisions have been discussed with regard to the legislation implementing the European Green Deal in Bulgaria.

Negotiations with the European Commission on what the content of the territorial fair transition plans should be have been extremely difficult. What the trade union structures in the energy sector resisted was that in the territorial fair transition plans we did not want to see specific dates for the closure of coal-fired power plants.

You know very well that that was one of the things that the European Commission wanted to see.

It was the same in Poland. I have quite good friends in Poland who were involved in this process. In the Czech Republic, in Germany, in Poland, we actually used a very good example in terms of agreements between the miners and the government on the phased closure of the mines, on the release of people, on what will develop afterwards in these regions. On the basis of these agreements, we have proposed our version of an agreement to the government, but we have not yet signed such an agreement. We are calling for a national plan for a fair transition, not only for energy, but also for the other sectors that are affected by these legislative initiatives of the European Green Deal – transport, construction, agriculture, in connection with what is also coming in terms of extending emissions trading. All of these issues were brought together at one point in the development of the territorial plans for a fair transition.

In this country, with the help of PricewaterhouseCoopers, the territorial plans for a fair transition were developed. We were very much in touch with colleagues in other countries, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe, about how the process was developing there and where the development of these fair transition territorial plans was actually going. Anyway, the territorial plans for a fair transition in Bulgaria were submitted at the latest possible date. This was done without our agreement, even though we have been involved in absolutely all the meetings on the subject. I have personally participated in at least 40 meetings on the subject with Pricewaterhouse in the framework of the European Green Deal Advisory Council.

The Territorial Fair Transition Plans are already a fact. But I believe that the funds under the territorial fair transition plans can actually make a significant contribution to mitigating all these negative developments that would take place.

The changes in Bulgaria are already happening, unfortunately. I do not know if you are aware, but the second largest thermal power plant, ConturGlobal, has closed. It is an American plant, and its closure is linked to contracts, such as our country entered into years ago, which give it privileges. The moment their contract with the state expired, at the beginning of this year, it shut down immediately because the market did not allow it to continue operating on market terms.

As a result of this closure, 350 people were left without work. So for us, the transition is no longer fair. It does not fulfil what the European Commission actually told us – that no one would be left behind. These people have already been left behind. Very few of them have managed to find work. The main reason for this is that the wages that they have received in this company are significantly higher than what the market in the Stara Zagora region is currently offering. They prefer to go to the labour exchange for a year to get their bearings and see what happens next.

In terms of funding and linking to the Territorial Fair Work Plans – the first indicative program that was approved is for 2024. Under this indicative programme, we had to absorb more than 900 million leva (460 million euro). Of all the measures that are planned for 2024, only one is currently taking place, and that relates to increasing the energy efficiency of residential buildings.

We insisted, when we introduced this project, that buildings which have at least 5% of their residents employed in the coal industry should be approved for energy efficiency improvements, so that these funds can be directed to the people who will suffer from what is happening. And what is happening is that we have a closed plant. In 2026 we will have a second closed plant, again an American plant, which has already declared that it will not run on coal.

Coal production for last year has halved compared to 2022. This reduction is continuing and, in fact, the state has not yet decided what will happen to the people who will be made redundant. It is now clear to all of us that some of these people will be laid off.

What are you doing as a union?

We have started a project that is not part of the fair project fund because we don’t have the funding. We have asked the state through another program, Human Resources, to start mapping the skills of people who are employed in the coal regions. There are about 15 000 people directly employed and over 30 000 indirectly employed. This project is currently underway. We are meeting with each of the people, face to face, filling in a questionnaire where we are asking them various questions asking them what their skills are, whether they want to upskill into something else, which sectors they would go to work in. We have previously done a survey of the labour market in these Bulgarian coal mining regions. We are asking workers to what extent they would accept going to work in other industries.

I can tell you in advance that 90% of them want to stay in the energy sector. They are not very willing to upgrade their qualifications because, unfortunately, we cannot offer them more specifics. The Just Transition Fund itself requires that people’s training should be focused mainly on a low-carbon economy and on building renewable energy sources.

At this stage, all Bulgarian operators have some kind of investment intentions for development – for example to switch to gas, to build hydro plants or other such investments in a low carbon economy. We have basically looked at that basis, i.e. based on the investment intentions of the companies, to see what jobs they would find, what skills would be required in those jobs, so that we can start training people in those new skills. Almost all the plants have already gone through this mapping. We are currently preparing a very big and serious report in terms of what we have achieved, because in addition to meeting people directly, we are also doing focus groups, meetings with management, with the management of the enterprises from which we are getting this additional information.

Unfortunately, in the state-owned companies, Maritsa-Iztok Mines and Maritsa-Iztok 2 TPP, there is some resistance from the people to carry out this mapping. Seeing what has happened with the other plant, they believe that this mapping is hardly the basis on which they will be released in the future, after coal mining has subsided, which is far from the case. We are trying to tell them that this is actually the only way, at this stage, to protect jobs.

We have another proposal specifically for the mines, and thank God the state has moved a little bit in that direction. We are proposing that a separate company be set up to reclaim the coal mines. In the Maritza-East mine, at least 10 years after coal mining has ceased, reclamation will have to be carried out. A large number of people should be transferred, retaining all rights in this enterprise, in order to preserve jobs as much as possible.

That is what we are doing. To finish with the training. We have succeeded in getting the European Commission to make the coal operators the beneficiaries of the first stage of training of these people. You know very well that the European Commission does not allow that sort of thing, but we managed to fight it. And it was us, the union. And in fact, the first beneficiaries of the funds for retraining people are 10 coal operators from Bulgaria. This is a process that we are implementing now. I am very hopeful that by the end of the year we will have guidelines for the development of the projects. By the end of the year, the companies will be able to apply to the regional development programme, which manages the Fair Transition Fund.

And these funds should go into the enterprises and they should also have their own training centres. Together with them, we should start retraining people to try to find them jobs. That is to say, before the redundancies start, our aim is to find them jobs.

In terms of the other Fair Transition Fund projects, unfortunately, we are unlikely to see one started before the end of the year. We are pushing for such a project to start to help small and medium-sized enterprises to adapt to all these processes that are happening. There is 250 million euro earmarked for the three regions. It is not a small sum. But, perhaps due to insufficient management capacity of the regional development programme, which will again manage the Fair Transition Fund, this is not happening.

There is now a proposal for the new indicative programme for 2025. I see that this project has been moved there, but we will insist that it starts by the end of the year. That is, it should stay in 2024 and the conditions of application should be worked out so that small and medium-sized enterprises can apply now and not in 2025.

Also not launched is what was actually again a union battle – that large businesses with over 250 people should participate in the Fair Transition Fund, because for us these are the businesses that can provide new jobs faster and easiest. There is also 250 million leva (127 million euro) earmarked for that, but it will not happen this year. In the new indicative programme, they have proposed it to us for the second half of 2025.

I am writing an opinion right now on the indicative programme for 2025, and our trade union has reacted very strongly that these funds for enterprises should be withdrawn as much as possible at the beginning of this year so that they can reach the enterprises. At the moment, the processes in the coal-mining regions are extremely intense. Mining companies are generating huge losses. It is difficult to make decisions about the future.

The other thing that we have proposed to the state, and it is in the process of being developed, is that we have also proposed a bill on the model of Poland and Germany, but I am mainly using the Polish model for, I do not want to use the word early retirement, but to compensate people who are due to retire in the next four or five years.

This is quite well developed in Poland and is based on a Western model taken from Germany. This bill is already ready, hopefully to be one of the first items in the new National Assembly when it is formed. You know that the political situation in Bulgaria at the moment is a disaster. Here we have voted in 7 parliamentary elections in 3 years.

This is having a huge impact on all these processes. We have lost money from the recovery and sustainability plan because the National Assembly is not taking the necessary decisions that need to be taken in order for us to receive the funds. I assume that you are familiar with RePowerEU.

RePowerEU is part of the Recovery and Sustainability Plan being followed in Bulgaria. It focuses mainly on investment in renewable energy sources. Our government has managed to negotiate the funds, which we will use to pay out around 500 million euro, to be directed towards this reclamation of the mine sites so that we can get people there more quickly.

In the Just Transition Fund, again under pressure from the trade union, there is 270 million euro earmarked, again for the reclamation of the sites. So we have tried to accumulate, in total, nearly 2 billion euro to start this reclamation, which will enable us to transfer or save 2 000 jobs. The idea is to target the miners there so that they can continue working.

What other funds and initiatives are there in the Fair Transfer Fund that are important to you?

It’s important to get the industrial zones project off the ground to develop a low carbon economy. I doubt that will happen this year. We are very much counting on those industrial zones being developed in those regions, because they will provide, I think, enough jobs that people who are going to drop out of extractive energy can go into. I give the example of Stara Zagora, where the development of such a zone is currently underway and where it is planned to open up several hundred jobs, which is not a small number for us. Our insistence is, in fact, that these jobs should be filled as a priority by people from the coal industry.

In Romania or in Poland, coal mining is an economically important industry and great efforts are being made to preserve coal mining areas as an economic centre. What plans are there in a similar direction for Bulgarian regions such as Stara Zagora?

Of course. We insist that Stara Zagora remains the energy heart of Bulgaria. The processes related to the transition to renewable energy sources in the region have started. Unfortunately, they are moving at a pace that is extremely slow. The large power plants have ideas for the development of low-carbon energy production.

There are a lot of interesting ideas. For example, the American power plant AES wants to build a battery that is based on storing energy in molten salt. That is to say, one of the plant’s units, which runs on coal, could be converted to use salt to store energy. It would be melted, heated and then used as a battery. All the plants have the idea of building photovoltaic parks. Some have already started in the Stara Zagora region, where a photovoltaic park is currently being built.

Some of the power plants have the idea to build new gas-fired units to generate electricity. There was an extremely large project to build nearly 3 gigawatts of photovoltaic plants throughout the region, which is not moving forward at the moment. And the other thing, which is extremely important and you should know it, is that it is very realistic that Stara Zagora will become one of the hydrogen valleys of Europe for green hydrogen production, which of course involves large photovoltaic plants. There is a small pilot project for green hydrogen production at the moment, called Zahyr, and a very large hydrogen project – bLion – to produce 300 000 tonnes of hydrogen, which is extremely serious. And I very much hope that these projects will develop.

In the Just Transition Fund for 2025, there is a whole new activity called Hydrogen Value Chain Capacity. It is worth 315 million leva (161 million euro), which is quite a good amount. Of course it is not intended to build some huge project, but at least for pilot projects to provide the basis for the development of this thing.

There are many different opinions and views – how this thing can be launched, whether we have enough water in the region and so on. Bulgaria is thinking along these lines. Personally, I am a very strong supporter of the development of hydrogen production in the region, because we have companies that can use it there. This major project will bring jobs to at least 4 000 people, which is very good for us. Then there will be no stress on the labour market in the region. However, this is also a political decision. Unfortunately, there is no one in Bulgaria to take it on.

We definitely think that the development of renewable energy and a low-carbon, high added-value economy in the region is the future and the way to keep the complex whole. This is the process that needs to happen. But there is no credibility for this in Bulgaria. So far, only trouble is seen here in a just transition. There are people who have already lost their jobs. A large number of people already know that they are going to lose their jobs and do not see an alternative.

There must be development. When we talk about upskilling, about new and better jobs, that means a fair transition. But people are saying, ‘In what direction exactly are you going to upskill me to make sure I get a job?’ The answer, unfortunately, is very difficult. There is not a single significant project in the region that has got off the ground.

The manufacture of parts for electric cars, the manufacture of blades for wind turbines, the manufacture of solar panels, the manufacture of hydrogen cells, the manufacture of batteries… If only one major investor had come along and said that they were opening up 500 jobs in the low-carbon economy, so that people could see that there was a pole, a peg stuck somewhere, and that there were jobs opening up. Then they would probably believe it. But unfortunately that is not happening.

That is the problem. I am convinced that these things will start to happen, but these are largely political decisions. Politicians, thanks to one election after another, are fooling people. They are not telling them the truth. They are not telling them that there is a problem. Unfortunately, we are very worried that at some point we may be faced with a fait accompli.

We tell it to the people, but then we are the bad messengers. They say, “No! It’s your job, the unions’ job, to pound the table if we have to go out on the yellow cobblestones and tell them we want to carry on as we have been.” But it’s clear to all of us that that’s not going to happen. You cannot, with a production of 25 million tonnes the year before, barely pay the wages of 6 500 people and now, with a production of 10 million tonnes, pay the same wages. We are all clear that this cannot happen. The companies are making losses that we are all paying for. And in fact there are no solutions for politicians before elections.

There are funds available – 250 million leva (128 million euro) a year – to start reclaiming the mines, to keep people and to pay their wages. OK, we decide. We have been waiting for ten months for notifications from the European Commission, which have come, which have not come. Because we want state aid. And it probably won’t happen. People are starting to resist even the good stuff. We want to have enterprises where they start working on the reclamation, because whatever it is, this reclamation has to happen. Otherwise it is a huge environmental bomb that nobody knows what the size of the disaster will be if there is no reclamation of the Maritsa East mine.

Moreover, if the big investors we dream of come, they cannot come without reclaimed land. They will want infrastructure – a place where people can work. Building infrastructure is a very serious undertaking. It requires time up front.

Separately, the KNSB is demanding that a national plan for the development of the Maritsa East complex be created, where steps are described with deadlines and with responsible parties, so that we can monitor this whole process. But this is not happening, unfortunately.

In April 2024, 10 000 people protested in the triangle of power in Sofia (the area between the buildings of the presidency, the National Assembly and the government – ed.). Our trade union is applying pressure. We told them directly and openly that someone must have the political will to finally say what the situation is now and what will be done. To tell the truth to the people. Nobody wants to tell it because that will lose the voters.

At the moment the populist parties are winning, those who are nationalists, those who are telling people ‘Calm down! Vote for us. When we come to power, you will work until the year 2100.” This is complete madness and a lie. But unfortunately, people, because they don’t see a solution, start believing such things.

There is talk of stopping carbon trading. That means getting out of the EU. Bulgaria’s future is in the EU. There is no other way. The problem is that there is no solution. Or some half-measures are being applied which only postpone the problems in time. This could cost us very dearly. We are constantly asking, we are constantly coming up with opinions. We make requests to the government. But things happen slowly – especially in the energy sector.

In Bulgaria, the just transition is being managed by local stakeholder organisations – unions, employers, local authorities coming together in sub-committees in each coal mining region. What are the activities of these structures and to what extent do they have the capacity to manage the process?

There is a sub-committee to monitor the just transition. The monitoring committee involves many organisations – trade unions, employers, government, etc. The means for a just transition are for the people. We will be watching very closely to make sure that the funds are going to help the people who are going to be affected by these processes that have happened in the regions. We insisted, when the territorial plans for the just transition were being prepared, that sub-committees be set up to monitor this.

In discussing the indicative programme for 2025, it will first be approved at local level in these monitoring sub-committees. Again, proposals will be collected and only then will they be submitted to a monitoring committee. These subcommittees have met once or twice so far. The main driving force there is expected to be local communities, especially municipalities.

But unfortunately, their capacity is very low. And they have a very difficult time understanding all these projects that need to happen. And because there is no capacity, that is why the first project that started was for renovation, because the municipalities in Bulgaria have a lot of experience with renovation of buildings. And also because they were the most ready in this respect. That is why this project started.

Why was it made so that organisations or structures that do not have so much experience and technological and knowledge about these issues are the ones leading? Shouldn’t the leads be people who have knowledge of energy and fair project issues?

The Fair Transition Plan funds are not just focused on energy. The Ministry of Social Policy is also involved, and the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works is also involved. The Ministry of the Environment and Water is also involved. But they have to be the main generators of proposals. The municipalities have to break it down through their vision of how to make this thing happen.

The unions should break them through what jobs are going to be created and how to keep jobs. And the employers should in turn be given those funds that will enable them to apply to develop a low-carbon economy, to develop an energy-efficient economy, so that they can reduce these large production costs that they have, which are associated with the consumption of a lot of energy. And to produce fewer emissions, of course.

In addition to the Just Transition Fund, we have a recovery and sustainability plan and cohesion programmes. A just transition costs an insane amount of money. If the funds from the Recovery and Sustainability Plan and the cohesion funds are not enough, let us add the funds from the Fair Transition Fund, with a corresponding demarcation, because this is being monitored very closely by the European Commission, so that there is no overlap. There is, of course, no such coordination unit. Things are so confused that Bulgaria has actually absorbed only 6% of the funds we have, which is insane.

We have one payment from the Recovery and Sustainability Plan. We are the only country that has only one payment of 1.3 billion euro, of which 406 million euro has been paid, and that is it. Unlike Poland, for example, which I do not know which payment they are on, or Greece, which is on the fourth payment.

We have already lost 100 million euro from the territorial fair transition plans. I’m very worried, and our union’s reinforcement is that we don’t lose any more of those funds. They actually have to reach the people. If you ask me whether the reasons are administrative and lack of capacity in the structures, I would say that things are not happening because of the political situation in the country. There is disagreement and a lack of solutions here. I give you the example of energy poverty.

We have a very good proposal to create energy communities in Bulgaria. But we are almost at the beginning. There is 300 million euro earmarked for the creation of energy communities. There are only two energy communities in Bulgaria at the moment, in Gabrovo and in Burgas.

We can thus organise our trade unions to create such energy communities, which will be good for the people in some way. But we were here last year as well. And at the beginning of this year, the legislation changed in that direction to make it easier to create such energy communities. This has a lot to do with the upcoming liberalisation of the electricity market for residential consumers from 2026.

In Bulgaria, this is imminent, and we are actually worried, because we see this lack of a political solution again. Which ministry will determine who the energy poor are – the Ministry of Energy, the Ministry of Public Works, the Ministry of the Environment, the Ministry of Finance? Several times we have organised forums and told the government that this is a serious problem.

There are 1 800 000 energy-poor people in Bulgaria, according to the definition we have adopted. Someone needs to work out the mechanism by which the energy poor will be defined and the mechanism by which they will receive their respective funds and benefits. That thing is not happening. And this is where the municipalities should now get involved, because they are close to the people. They know what kind of housing these people live in, what their incomes are and so on. Naturally, they should also go alongside social policy, which has enormous support and social protection programmes for vulnerable groups.

In Bulgaria, for example, around 300 000 people are currently receiving heating benefits. In practice, only 20% of Bulgarians heat their homes properly. So, as you can see, there is an avalanche of issues going on all the time, and we are trying to raise them all the time, but things are moving very slowly. We do not have a plan.

How do you assess the communication on just transition issues, not only by the institutions, in the media in general, the level of awareness and engagement of the people who are involved and affected by this process?

We don’t wait at all for someone to ask us something. We are asking. Communication is only going on because we are active. Otherwise, unfortunately, in all the strategic documents that are created in some way, we are involved in some way, constantly through pressure trying to put in things that we think are good for the people and for the country. And sometimes, though, the government just hands these documents over – the territorial fair transition plans, the recovery and resilience plan and so on. We’re involved, but in the final qualities someone decides and hands them over without our final approval. With the integrated climate and energy plans, which we are a year late with, Bulgaria is obliged to release the documents for public consultation. There, too, we react and say what we disagree with.

After all, documents are constantly flowing between Bulgaria and the European Commission. We are constantly in some kind of negotiation process, an exchange of letters. However, the European Commission returns a list of 20 questions, in which we respond. This correspondence drags on over time. Particularly in the last year and a half, communication has deteriorated. The caretaker governments that have been running our country for the last few years have no way of taking serious and final decisions. And many decisions have been postponed in time.

You mentioned energy communities. This is also a Greenpeace cause. What is the relationship between the KNSB and green organisations? From what you say, you have common understandings and interests. But on the other hand, the Bulgarian media traditionally give the impression that there are contradictions between trade unions and greens.

There are no contradictions. We are not a brown trade union. We also want there to be green energy, we want there to be clean air, we want this low-carbon energy to bring higher added value. However, this must not be at the expense of people losing their jobs and their livelihoods. That is to say, okay, we will go for low-carbon energy, but let us see how the new industries develop. Will the people who are now employed in this energy industry be able to go there? Is it that complicated?

Do they listen to you when you have your arguments?

They all listen to us. These processes are normal. It is in such arguments that real things are born.

Bulgaria is stagnating politically and economically, as you mentioned before. Do you think that if these funds are used well, there can be a positive change for the country? A just transition is a problem not only for Bulgaria, but also for the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

These technologies, which should give and open up new jobs, cannot be developed only by Germany, Sweden, Finland, Germany. These countries can close down a factory or production that is not energy efficient and then rebuild it and start working with new technologies.

But we cannot afford it in Poland or Bulgaria. And here we see already this fairness of transition – to be able to go in one direction, not in second or third gear, as our countries are. This is the essence of a just transition – means and policies so that we move in one direction. And, as I said to you, people in Bulgaria see that this process is not happening at the necessary pace and they do not believe in it.

Photo: Ognyan Atanassov (source: Vladimir Mitev)

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