Road carriers will be protesting across the country on May 26 against the high fuel prices. They want the State to take action against what they see as speculative and cartel pricing of fuels, and seek refund of the excise duty for the fuel they buy. Their demands are set out in a declaration made public Friday and addressed to Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev and the chairman of the parliamentary transport committee, Yordan Mirchev.

The declaration largely repeats demands set out when road hauliers held their warning protests last Monday. They include announcing a state of crisis on the road transport market,
suspension of the licensing of new carriers, lowering the charge for the vignette stickers and introducing entry charges for non-EU carriers, measures to secure payments to carriers based on the French legislation and experience, and improvement of the condition of roads.

Speaking to the press earlier on Friday, Economy Minister Peter Dimitrov said while he understood the motives of road carriers, he did not see a solution to their problems in Bulgaria. He also said giving them state aids was inadmissible. "If road carriers analyze the situation, they will see that the reason for the high fuel prices in not in Bulgaria," the Economy Minister added. He also said that the rising fuel prices cannot leave travel fare rates unaffected.

Peter Dimitrov repeated that the government is ready for a temporary suspension of the registration of new carriers.

Dimitrov also commented that there is nothing to be done because oil prices are going up across the world and the excise duty which Bulgaria charges is below the EU-set minimum.

He sees no reason for a dramatic increase of the prices of foods - because the crops promise to be good this year.

In darik.net, the Committee for the Protection of Competition is quoted saying that they have not been alerted of cartel pricing of diesel. It also said that cartel agreements are usually informal and verbal, and are therefore hard to uncover. They urged persons and companies which hold any relevant information, to speak up. A company which is involved in a cartel arrangement and discloses it to the competent authorities, does not face any penalty, BTA reported.