On 21.07.2022, the Constitutional Court (CC) ruled on a decision in constitutional case No. 4/2022, declaring unconstitutional the Decision of the National Assembly of 9 February 2022 on the election of the Chairman of the Energy and Water Regulatory Commission (EWRC). With this decision, the CC practically declares the election of the current chairman of EWRC, Stanislav Todorov, illegal.
As a result, EWRC called on political leaders and MPs to start a new procedure for electing a chairman of the Energy and Water Regulatory Commission as soon as possible. With the entry into force of the Court’s Decision, the Commission is left without an acting chairman, and in view of his powers under the Energy Act, the regulatory body is rendered unable to carry out its activities. This leads to a serious risk that the energy crisis will turn into an institutional crisis, which will have a direct impact on all Bulgarian citizens and companies.
To address the problem, the members of the Parliament decided that the former chairman of EWRC, Ivan Ivanov, would continue to perform the functions of chairman of the energy regulator until a new head takes office. Out of a total of 142 voters, 132 MPs voted “for”, two were “against”, and eight people “abstained”. With this decision, on the proposal of one of the parties, the National Assembly returned the former chairman of the Energy and Water Regulatory Commission, Ivan Ivanov as an acting chairman.
