Bulgaria is unable to secure the certification of CNNC's nuclear reactor in the EU in the Belene deal

The idea  that Bulgaria could assist CNNC to certify its reactor in the EU via the NPP Belene deal will end up in the same mess as the South Stream promise. President Parvanov and PM Borissov vouched to guarantee clearance of the South Stream and NPP Belene deal in Brussels, then took Putin's money as equity and debt in the South Stream Bulgaria company and delivered .... nothing. Now as the cash is gone, at least a significant part, the Bulgarian beneficiaries are frantically trying to swap their EU 'brokerage' against geopolitical "services" to appease Putin in the continuation of the Turkish stream, both Moscow and Beijing in the redivivus of the NPP Belene project.
Sofia is unable to guarantee access of Chinese reactors to the EU nuclear market. The certification process is far from technical or automatic, as geopolitics prevail when weigning sensitive political, economic and financial balances in the EU-China relations.
The chances that Bulgaria's 'elite' gets a fresh slap on the face from Brussels should not be ignored, as the geopolitical competition between the EU and China is far beyond Sofia's control. The certification of Chinese nuclear reactors in the EU is geopolitics per se.
Borissov's government exhibits bad judgement and chooses to listen to failed advisers - the same, that led to the current quagmire. Seems Bulgaria is heading to a new head-on collision with the EC and key EU members. It is absurd to believe that Sofia could up its bargaining power by exploiting areas of strategic vulnerability ot the EU versus Russia, China or Turkey, later hoping for trade offs against its stalled accession to the Schengen and the Eurozone, lifting the monitoring mechanism on the rule of law and the judicial reform. Such brinkmanship further erodes Bulgaria's EU capital base and threatens to push the country beyond the EU periphery into the abyss of 'no man's land'.
Publicly claiming that the architect of the Energy Grand Slam disaster - former energy minister Rumen Ovcharov, is the source of ultimate wisdom and expertise on NPP Belene, proves that the current top decision makers have learnt nothing from past mistakes and are totally blind to the risks and opportunities. There is real chance of recovering, at least in part, some of the losses on NPP Belene by selling or (co-investing) the bought equipment jointly with the CNNC. Borissov's "henchmen" are gambling in the extremes, generating a deceptive feeling that they may achieve more than can. In the end it always boils down to the PR excercize with the guilty EU and the Bulgarian taxpayers and consumers paying the billion dollars bill.