Much of Bulgaria's industry, already no great shakes in the competitiveness stakes, is dependent on natural gas. This is bad enough, but the situation is made worse by the fact that schools and residential buildings in many major cities have felt the chill grasp of the energy crisis induced by the impasse over Russian natural gas supplies.

The dispute between Russia and Ukraine is a complicated one, but one thing is simply clear. Whatever the speed at which the January 2009 dispute is resolved, it is highly likely that future winters will see further such disputes.

Bulgaria must be ready to meet this threat, readier than it has proved this time around, even though it was heartening to see that contingency plans were in place.

This country has to move beyond the point of emergency plans, emergency meetings and of having to appeal to the European Union for help, especially given that neither Moscow nor Kiev seem very inclined to heed appeals from Brussels on an issue which is vital to their respective national interests.

The simple fact is that Bulgaria cannot afford, in its energy supplies, to be reliant on having so many eggs in one basket.

That there are elections, national and European, scheduled for this year may help to stimulate a debate in Bulgaria on energy diversity.

A political and policy debate in Bulgaria about amending the pattern of energy supplies has to go beyond populist and ultimately Quixotic calls for the opening of the units of Kozloduy nuclear power station closed as part of the EU accession deal.

For the debate to be useful, factors to be taken into account must include efficiency, environmental considerations, cost and long-term sustainability, and there must be a realistic acknowledgement that no form of energy generation is entirely "clean" - which also makes paramount the need for greater energy efficiency.

It is to be hoped that this year's election, rather than seeing useless mudslinging and playing on populist, nationalist and ethnic sentiments, will include the somewhat more edifying spectacle of the competing parties offering policy alternatives to stave off the prospect of Bulgaria again becoming collateral damage in this new form of cold war.