Companies demand to be included in measures designed by Government due September 28
Skopje, 15 September 2022 (MIA) – A Macedonian delegation is traveling to Sofia on Thursday to conclude negotiations with Bulgaria regarding the procurement of electricity, and teams from Serbia are in the country today, making final agreements on deepening the cooperation, said Economy Minister Kreshnik Bekteshi.
After Wednesday’s working meeting with Economic Chamber President Branko Azeski and representatives of the country’s ten major commercial consumers of electricity, Bekteshi said tomorrow’s meetings in Sofia will focus on finalizing technicalities, but prices will also be discussed.
The required amounts of electricity are not an issue, Bekteshi noted, but the goal is to provide them at the most reasonable price.
The companies, on the other hand, should formulate their demands until Tuesday, but today they specifically noted that they want to be directly involved in the measures designed by the Government due for September 28.
“The open supply market operates according to the principles of the stock market. There is a government decision that no licensed trader can have a margin higher than 10 percent of today's reference stock price. It is a kind of support if the traders' percentages were higher. All our efforts are aimed at having rational prices for our companies on the free market. We are not only talking about providing amounts of electricity because we have those amounts from imports and that is not an issue. The issue is in terms of price, and we want to solve it bilaterally with our neighbors for the entire heating season,” the Minister said.
He reiterated that ESM will cover all the needs of the regulated market, for all households, micro and small companies, which are 72,000 in total.
“Prime Minister Kovachevski is in talks with all his counterparts in the neighboring countries. We expect to reach an agreement to meet the needs of the economy for providing the necessary amounts of electricity and natural gas. By the end of this week, including tomorrow, negotiations with the other neighboring countries should probably be completed, but I will leave that to be announced by Prime Minister Kovachevski next week,” said Bekteshi.
According to Azeski, six out of ten companies attending Thursday’s meeting are on the open market and can freely purchase electricity wherever they want, but today they wished to formulate certain demands to be considered. The price increase, Azeski added, is anywhere between four to six times.
“All these companies expressed expectation for additional support because they are in a weaker position competitively in the region, because they have guaranteed prices there,” the Chamber’s President said.
At the beginning of Thursday’s press conference, Azeski said that a new set of business measures will be announced on September 28. The measures are already being finalized, and their goal is to maintain the competitiveness of companies and jobs.
