Employees of coal-fired power plants protest in Sofia

Miners and employees of the country's thermal power plants on January 12 gathered in front of the Parliament to protest against the closure of coal-fired power plants. They are demanding a renegotiation of the Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP).

MPs will vote today on a resolution to oblige the Council of Ministers to negotiate a change to the RRP so that coal plants do not have to close.

The MPs are also expected to vote on a draft law on compensations of people for transport costs.

According to this draft law, the most vulnerable groups of the population will be helped. Before that the support was for all those who buy fuel..

The money will be raised from companies that import Russian crude oil.

A decision will also be voted on to oblige the Council of Ministers to negotiate with the US company Westinghouse for the construction of two new units at the Kozloduy nuclear power plant.

"Until now, many politicians avoided this topic and have been unwilling to say clearly what they will stand for in Brussels. At least now there is some direction set and I hope it will continue and they will be firm in the negotiations, because we are going to have very difficult talks with the European Commission," said Luboslav Kostov of the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions of Bulgaria.