According to the agreement reached between Bulgaria and the EU, 3 and 4 of the Kozloduy NPP should be closed down in late 2006. This was one of the important conditions the EU put in exchange of Bulgaria’s EU membership. According to economic analyses Bulgaria will lose from the decommissioning of these reactors some 3 billion Euros. This raises many questions some of them having to do with the EU budget. Members of the European Parliament, Terence Wynn from the UK among them, raised in the Budget Committee of the Bulgarian Parliament the question of why should the EU pay compensations for the closure of the two reactors, which had been recognized by international experts as fully safe, instead of just letting them function. Mr. Wynn called on his colleagues to pay a visit to the Bulgarian NPP and receive on the spot information on the safety of the two units. Four European Parliament members responded to the invitation – Edith Herzog from Hungary, Nikolaos Vakalis and Yoanis Varvatsiotis from Greece and Gordon Adam from the UK. The delegation headed by Terence Wynn visited Kozloduy Nuke and received proof of its safe exploitation. On March 29 the European Parliament is to put to the vote the report on Bulgaria submitted by its Foreign Policy Commitee. The report recommends the European Commission take up a more flexible attitude towards the closure of reactors 3 and 4 of the Bulgarian NPP and let the issue be resolved on technical and economic level and not on political one. Among the arguments of the European Parliament members is the analysis pointing to the fact that Bulgaria’s power production system covers, depending on to the season, from 50 to 90% of the energy deficit on the Balkans. Until the building of the Belene NPP in Bulgaria, by 2010 at the earliest, the absence of the two units in question will be felt much too painfully in the rather unstable Balkan region, entailing the risk of economic and social tension. During his talks with Energy Minister Miroslav Sevlievski, however, the delegation was left with the impression that the Bulgarian side does not intend to further negotiate the decommissioning date for fear of having Bulgaria’s EU accession fixed for the start of 2007, postponed. In this connection Terence Wynn warns that having in mind the expected restrictions as regards EU next budget, covering the 2007-2012 period, Bulgaria would find it very difficult to contract decent compensations for the losses incurred as a result of the decommissioning of the two nuclear units.
According to the agreement reached between Bulgaria and the EU, 3 and 4 of the Kozloduy NPP should be closed down in late 2006. This was one of the important conditions the EU put in exchange of Bulgaria’s EU membership. According to economic analyses Bulgaria will lose from the decommissioning of these reactors some 3 billion Euros. This raises many questions some of them having to do with the EU budget. Members of the European Parliament, Terence Wynn from the UK among them, raised in the Budget Committee of the Bulgarian Parliament the question of why should the EU pay compensations for the closure of the two reactors, which had been recognized by international experts as fully safe, instead of just letting them function. Mr. Wynn called on his colleagues to pay a visit to the Bulgarian NPP and receive on the spot information on the safety of the two units. Four European Parliament members responded to the invitation – Edith Herzog from Hungary, Nikolaos Vakalis and Yoanis Varvatsiotis from Greece and Gordon Adam from the UK. The delegation headed by Terence Wynn visited Kozloduy Nuke and received proof of its safe exploitation. On March 29 the European Parliament is to put to the vote the report on Bulgaria submitted by its Foreign Policy Commitee. The report recommends the European Commission take up a more flexible attitude towards the closure of reactors 3 and 4 of the Bulgarian NPP and let the issue be resolved on technical and economic level and not on political one. Among the arguments of the European Parliament members is the analysis pointing to the fact that Bulgaria’s power production system covers, depending on to the season, from 50 to 90% of the energy deficit on the Balkans. Until the building of the Belene NPP in Bulgaria, by 2010 at the earliest, the absence of the two units in question will be felt much too painfully in the rather unstable Balkan region, entailing the risk of economic and social tension. During his talks with Energy Minister Miroslav Sevlievski, however, the delegation was left with the impression that the Bulgarian side does not intend to further negotiate the decommissioning date for fear of having Bulgaria’s EU accession fixed for the start of 2007, postponed. In this connection Terence Wynn warns that having in mind the expected restrictions as regards EU next budget, covering the 2007-2012 period, Bulgaria would find it very difficult to contract decent compensations for the losses incurred as a result of the decommissioning of the two nuclear units.
