The Sofia City Administrative Court has overturned Bulgargaz’s refusal to disclose information about the actual quantities of natural gas delivered and the payments made under its controversial contract with Turkish state-owned company Botas for 2023-2025. The ruling is final and requires the state-owned gas company to provide the requested information.
The case was brought after Factcheck.bg submitted a request under the Access to Public Information Act seeking details on how much natural gas Bulgargaz actually received under the agreement in 2023, 2024 and 2025, measured in megawatt-hours, as well as how much it paid for the deliveries in each of those years.
Bulgargaz refused to release the information, arguing that it was connected to ongoing negotiations to renegotiate the agreement and was protected as a trade secret. The court rejected those arguments, finding that the requested data concerns matters of public interest because it enables citizens to assess how a state-owned company spends public money and what it receives in return.
The court noted that Bulgargaz is subject to the Access to Public Information Act because it is owned by Bulgarian Energy Holding, which is itself fully state-owned. According to the ruling, there is an overriding public interest whenever public funds are being spent, and Bulgargaz failed to overcome that presumption.
The judges concluded that making the information public would improve transparency and allow the public to assess whether state funds were used appropriately, efficiently and economically, as well as whether the Botas agreement has benefited or harmed the Bulgarian side.
The court also made a distinction between the information requested and the broader terms of the agreement. Factcheck.bg did not seek disclosure of the entire contract or details of future negotiations, but only information about “the deliveries already actually made in 2023–2025 and the amounts paid for them.”
Even if those figures were covered by the confidentiality arrangements between Bulgargaz and Botas, the court said the agreement itself allows information to be disclosed where this is required by applicable legislation.
The ruling further states that the restriction concerning information related to negotiations can no longer apply to deliveries made from 2023 through June 2024 because the relevant two-year period has already expired.
The court was categorical in concluding that “there are no legal grounds” for Bulgargaz to refuse the requested information. It annulled the company’s refusal as unlawful and returned the case to Bulgargaz for a new decision. The company has 14 days to provide the requested information and was also ordered to cover the legal costs of the proceedings.
The case was represented by lawyer Alexander Kashamov, executive director of the Access to Information Program. He described the ruling as important for transparency and public oversight of state spending.
“The decision is of significant importance and confirms the practice of administrative courts that information on public expenditures is always of overriding public interest,” Kashamov said.
He argued that the court had rejected what he described as an excessively broad interpretation of the legal restrictions concerning negotiations. “What money has already been paid under the contract is the right of every citizen, especially a journalist, to know,” he said.
Kashamov also pointed to the court’s finding that, even if the restriction had applied to the requested information, the two-year period for its use had already expired in relation to part of the data.
“There is no greater force for control over the government and its actions with public funds than the citizen’s right to be informed and to demand accountability and transparency,” he said, adding that the principle had been reaffirmed by the independent court.
The decision also comes against the backdrop of continuing political controversy over the Botas agreement and the lack of publicly available information about its actual financial and operational results.
Vasilena Dotkova, who prepared the access-to-information request for Factcheck.bg, said the energy sector and energy security had increasingly become subjects of political and misinformation campaigns, particularly since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
According to Dotkova, the absence of concrete public data about the Botas contract has allowed conflicting claims about its advantages and disadvantages to circulate, including during election campaigns.
“The publication of real data on the issue, albeit retrospectively, will give the public a much clearer idea not only of the nature of the contract, but also of which parties and individuals have manipulatively used the topic to serve their political goals,” she said.
Factcheck.bg said it will publish the information on the actual gas deliveries and payments once Bulgargaz provides the data.