There is no official response to Bulgaria’s request to be excluded from the embargo on the imports of Russian oil to the EU, Radoslav Ribarski, chair of the National Assembly’s energy committee and MP from We Continue the Change party, one of the four parties in the ruling coalition, said for bTV. If that does not happen, then Bulgaria is prepared to veto the EU-wide decision.

“The government has decided to do everything possible not to support the sanctions. We are dependent on Russian oil which is refined in Burgas. This keeps fuel prices low. Throughout Europe they are much higher,” Radoslav Ribarski said. According to him, the same arguments that hold good of Hungary and Slovakia, for which a derogation from the sanctions regime is being proposed, should be valid for Bulgaria as well.