Nikolay Dinev, 34, has worked as a coal miner for 12 years, but now faces an uncertain future as an EU-wide exit from coal is discussed at the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland.
“It will be a disaster... The closure is inevitable,” Dinev told Agence France-Presse on the outskirts of the Maritsa East complex in central Bulgaria.
Bulgaria — which joined the EU in 2007, but remains one of the bloc’s poorest and most coal-dependent states — had long refrained from setting a deadline to end power production from coal.
Photo: AFP
However, the Bulgarian government last month said it would propose 2038 or 2040 as possible end dates as part of its engagements under the European Green Deal.
Miners’ trade unions protested in the capital, Sofia, calling for the government to save the sector that employs about 30,000 people.
Maritsa East employs 12,000 of them and provides more than one-third of Bulgaria’s electricity.
Mining has for decades been the main source of income in the region. The local deposits — discovered by a French geologist in the 19th century and later developed by Soviet engineers — still hold 1.5 billion tonnes of coal, Bulgarian Ministry of Energy data show.
The government has proposed setting up a state company to convert mining areas into industrial parks, giving jobs to former workers, but Dinev wishes he could “push back the process [of closing the mines] by 30 years” until his retirement.
“I left the army because I got 500 leva [US$296] per month, and here they offered me double,” he said, adding that this father had worked in the mines for 31 years, despite his childhood home having been engulfed by their extension.
Dinev now earns 1,500 leva a month for 12 hours a day repairing equipment — the average salary in the poorest EU country — which is “not bad for the region,” he said.
He has saved enough to build a house for his family, where they grow fruit and vegetables, and raise chicken and rabbits.
The planned shutdown is likely to affect Bulgaria as a whole.
“It’s not only the workers in the mine, but all those who depend on them. My car mechanic is also anxious,” Dinev said.
VAGUE: The criteria of the amnesty remain unclear, but it would cover political violence from 1999 to today, and those convicted of murder or drug trafficking would not qualify Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodriguez on Friday announced an amnesty bill that could lead to the release of hundreds of prisoners, including opposition leaders, journalists and human rights activists detained for political reasons. The measure had long been sought by the US-backed opposition. It is the latest concession Rodriguez has made since taking the reins of the country on Jan. 3 after the brazen seizure of then-Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro. Rodriguez told a gathering of justices, magistrates, ministers, military brass and other government leaders that the ruling party-controlled Venezuelan National Assembly would take up the bill with urgency. Rodriguez also announced the shutdown
Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) purge of his most senior general is driven by his effort to both secure “total control” of his military and root out corruption, US Ambassador to China David Perdue said told Bloomberg Television yesterday. The probe into Zhang Youxia (張又俠), Xi’s second-in-command, announced over the weekend, is a “major development,” Perdue said, citing the family connections the vice chair of China’s apex military commission has with Xi. Chinese authorities said Zhang was being investigated for suspected serious discipline and law violations, without disclosing further details. “I take him at his word that there’s a corruption effort under
China executed 11 people linked to Myanmar criminal gangs, including “key members” of telecom scam operations, state media reported yesterday, as Beijing toughens its response to the sprawling, transnational industry. Fraud compounds where scammers lure Internet users into fake romantic relationships and cryptocurrency investments have flourished across Southeast Asia, including in Myanmar. Initially largely targeting Chinese speakers, the criminal groups behind the compounds have expanded operations into multiple languages to steal from victims around the world. Those conducting the scams are sometimes willing con artists, and other times trafficked foreign nationals forced to work. In the past few years, Beijing has stepped up cooperation
Exiled Tibetans began a unique global election yesterday for a government representing a homeland many have never seen, as part of a democratic exercise voters say carries great weight. From red-robed Buddhist monks in the snowy Himalayas, to political exiles in megacities across South Asia, to refugees in Australia, Europe and North America, voting takes place in 27 countries — but not China. “Elections ... show that the struggle for Tibet’s freedom and independence continues from generation to generation,” said candidate Gyaltsen Chokye, 33, who is based in the Indian hill-town of Dharamsala, headquarters of the government-in-exile, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA). It
RSS