The European Commission said on July 12 that it has approved 278 million leva, or about 142 million euro, in state aid for Bulgarian energy companies.

In a statement, the Commission said that the state aid aims to alleviate part of the costs incurred by companies that stored natural gas at Bulgaria’s Chiren underground gas facility to help the country reach its filling target before the start of the heating season in November 2022.

The Commission said that the scheme will compensate part of their losses stemming from storing high-priced gas in summer 2022 to meet Bulgaria’s filling…