The politics of Bulgaria take place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the prime minister is the head of government, and of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the National Assembly. The Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.
Bulgaria elects on the national level a head of state—the president—and a legislature. The president is elected for a five-year term directly by the people. The National Assembly has 240 members elected for a four-year term by proportional representation in multi-seat constituencies with a 4% threshold. Bulgaria has a multi-party system in which often no party receives a required majority and parties must collaborate to form governments, generally via confidence and supply or coalition agreements.
The Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant is a decommissioned two-unit RBMK-1500 nuclear power station in Visaginas Municipality, Lithuania. It was named after the nearby city of Ignalina. Due to the plant's similarities to the infamous Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in both reactor design and lack of a robust containment building, Lithuania agreed to close the plant as part of its agreement of accession to the European Union. Unit 1 was closed in December 2004; Unit 2 in December 2009. The plant accounted for 25% of Lithuania's electricity generating capacity and supplied about 70% of Lithuania's electrical demand. It was closed on December 31, 2009. Proposals have been made to construct a new nuclear power plant at the site, but such plans have yet to come to fruition.
The Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant is a nuclear power plant in Bulgaria situated 180 kilometres (110 mi) north of Sofia and 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) east of Kozloduy, a town on the Danube river, near the border with Romania. It is the country's only nuclear power plant and the largest in the region. The construction of the first reactor began on 6 April 1970.
A nuclear power phase-out is the discontinuation of usage of nuclear power for energy production. Often initiated because of concerns about nuclear power, phase-outs usually include shutting down nuclear power plants and looking towards fossil fuels and renewable energy. Three nuclear accidents have influenced the discontinuation of nuclear power: the 1979 Three Mile Island partial nuclear meltdown in the United States, the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in the USSR, and the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan.
The Lungmen Nuclear Power Plant, formerly known as Gongliao and commonly as the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant, is an unfinished nuclear power plant in New Taipei City, Taiwan. It consists of two ABWRs each of 1,300 MWe net. It is owned by Taiwan Power Company (Taipower).
Nuclear power generates about a third of electricity in Bulgaria. Bulgaria's first commercial nuclear reactor began operation in 1974. The Kozloduy NPP operates two pressurized water reactors with a total output of 1906 MW. This makes Bulgaria the 21st-largest user of nuclear power in the world. Construction of the Belene Nuclear Power Plant was officially terminated in March 2012, and a thermal powerplant was supposed to be built on the site. Efforts in May 2018 to restart the Belene project were unsuccessful. As of 2022, Bulgaria plans to construct new reactors at the existing Kozloduy site, and at Belene.
The Belene Nuclear Power Plant is an abandoned nuclear power plant 3 km from Belene and 11 km from Svishtov in Pleven Province, northern Bulgaria, near the Danube River. It was intended to substitute four VVER-440 V230 reactors of the Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant that were decommissioned as a prerequisite for Bulgaria to join the European Union.
European Parliament elections were held in Bulgaria on 20 May 2007. It was the country's first European election, having joined the Union on 1 January of that year. The country still had 18 MEPs, no change from before the election. Until Bulgaria could hold these elections, the country was represented by MEPs appointed by the National Assembly.
Five nationwide popular referendums were held in Italy on 8 November 1987, with three questions about nuclear energy after the Chernobyl disaster, and two questions about justice. Voting day had been postponed by six months, according to the Italian Constitution, because of the snap election of spring.
Nuclear power in Italy is a controversial topic. Italy started to produce nuclear energy in the early 1960s, but all plants were closed by 1990 following the 1987 referendum. As of 2023, Italy is one of only three countries, along with Lithuania and Germany, that completely phased out nuclear power for electricity generation after having operational reactors.
Atomstroyexport (ASE) JSC (Russian: Атомстройэкспорт) is the Russian Federation's nuclear power equipment and service exporter. It is a fully owned subsidiary of Rosatom.
Nuclear power in the European Union accounted for approximately 26% of total electricity production in 2019 and nearly half of low-carbon energy production across the EU.
Ukraine operates four nuclear power plants with 15 reactors located in Volhynia and South Ukraine. The total installed nuclear power capacity is over 13 GWe, ranking 7th in the world in 2020. Energoatom, a Ukrainian state enterprise, operates all four active nuclear power stations in Ukraine. In 2019, nuclear power supplied over 20% of Ukraine's energy.
Currently, Turkey has no operating commercial nuclear reactors. However, four VVER-1200 reactors at the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant, are currently under construction and expected to come online in 2025. The government is aiming for 20 GW of nuclear.
Delyan Dobrev is a Bulgarian politician and member of the National Assembly (Bulgaria). He was the Deputy Bulgarian Minister of Economy and Energy under Traycho Traykov, succeeding him as Minister in March 2012 following an energy crisis in the country which included the termination of the Belene Nuclear Power Plant project.
The Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant (Bengali: রূপপুর পারমাণবিক বিদ্যুৎকেন্দ্র) is a 2.4 GWe nuclear power plant project in Bangladesh. The nuclear power plant is being constructed at Rooppur of Ishwardi Upazila on the bank of the river Padma, about 160 km northwest of Dhaka. It will be the country's first nuclear power plant, and the first of the two units is expected to go into operation in 2025.
Parliamentary elections were held in Bulgaria on 12 May 2013, two months ahead of schedule. Protests had forced the resignation of the GERB government in February, leading to the election being moved up.
A referendum on introducing electronic voting was held in Bulgaria on 25 October 2015 alongside local elections. Although the referendum resulted was approved by a wide margin, turnout was far below the required threshold to make its result binding.
The electricity sector in Bulgaria is an important part of energy in Bulgaria and is highly diversified. As of 2021 nuclear power accounts for 34.7% of Bulgaria's power, coal power provides 39.4%, while renewable energy provides 15.8% of the country's electricity needs.
