Pirates file complaint over CEZ Group's activities in Bulgaria

The Czech opposition Pirate Party on Thursday filed a criminal complaint against an unknown perpetrator over the activities of the state-controlled CEZ energy group in Bulgaria in which the state lost several billion crowns, the party's lower house group leader Jakub Michalek has told journalists. The Czech state holds about a 70 percent stake in CEZ via the finance ministry. CEZ lost roughly 8.5 billion crowns in the Varna coal-fired power plant, Michalek said. CEZ bought the Varna plant in 2006 for 5.8 billion crowns and invested a further 2.8 billion in it. "This investment was not profitable because it did not generate profit from 2006 to 2016 but accumulated losses of 1.2 billion crowns," he said. CEZ entered the Bulgarian market at the end of 2004, but decided to leave the country due to disputes with the local authorities that started in 2013.