Germany and Bulgaria to cooperate closely on energy transition

Bulgaria and Germany have signed a declaration on cooperation in energy, environmental policy and climate protection. Bulgaria is a promising partner, among other reasons because of its focus on renewable hydrogen production.

Over the past three years, the Bulgarian state and local and foreign companies have prepared large-scale projects worth tens of billions of euros to green the local economy. Most of the projects focus on transforming the country’s two main coal regions in the west and south, and centre on generating electricity from solar PV and producing green hydrogen, Euractiv reports.

As early as August this year, German gas transmission system operator OGE, its Bulgarian counterpart and five other European TSOs signed a memorandum of understanding. They plan to build the 3,000 km Southeastern Hydrogen Corridor (SEEHyC) to transport hydrogen from the southeastern part of the continent to central Europe.

Ministerial meeting

Bulgarian caretaker Energy Minister Vladimir Malinov has now met German Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action Robert Habeck in Thessaloniki, Greece, and they signed a declaration.

Since Bulgaria joined the European Union in 2007, Germany has been Bulgaria’s largest trading partner, an Euractiv analysis found. According to data from the National Statistical Institute, trade between the two countries reached 23 billion euros in 2023.

“We have outlined new prospects for the traditionally strong relations between Bulgaria and Germany in the energy sector,” Energy Minister Vladimir Malinov said.

The two countries want to strengthen cooperation to promote energy efficiency and security, decarbonise industry, develop green energy corridors and interconnections, and advance carbon capture, utilisation and storage, the declaration states.

“We will expand our partnership in areas including hydrogen technologies, renewable energy, the green transition, energy corridors and supply diversification,” Malinov said.

Political crisis

Amid Bulgaria’s ongoing political crisis, Bulgarians will go to the polls in October for the seventh time in the past three years. The country has been unable to access nearly 5 billion euros in stimulus funds, posing a problem for future projects, including green ones.

The political crisis means the government has been unable to complete energy market liberalisation due to a lack of stable consensus. The Bulgarian parliament voted in April to postpone liberalisation by at least one year, leaving the country among the last states with non-liberalised markets, alongside Malta.

Malinov also recently met Greek Minister of Environment and Energy Theodoros Skylakakis. They discussed the strategic importance of Bulgarian-Greek cooperation for energy security in Europe. They expect the LNG terminal near Alexandroupolis to begin operations on 1 October.