"Setting a gas price cap at the EU level is only being discussed at this point," Bulgarian President Rumen Radev told journalists after an informal European Council meeting in Prague on Friday. The EU leaders recommended to the European Commission to propose steps to manage prices and reform the European gas market. These proposals will be considered at the next European Council meeting on October 20. 

He commented on the domestic political situation and the refusal of We Continue the Change to participate in consultations with GERB and to support a GERB mandated government, saying he would give the parties enough time to discuss their common priorities around which they could unite in order to elect a governing majority and a government. The President stressed that he expected them not to forget that the interests of the Bulgarian citizens come first. "It is extremely important to have a parliament because our constitutional model is based on parliament," he said.

Asked why he refused to sign the declaration of the Central and Eastern European leaders on Ukraine's fast-track accession to NATO, Radev said: “With full conviction, I did not sign the declaration on Ukraine's accession to NATO because this would mean a NATO-Russia war. I will continue to be responsible to the Bulgarian citizens. As president and commander-in-chief, I will work against Bulgaria's involvement in the war, no matter how beautifully it is phrased."