Balkan states call for Kozloduy restarts

14 March 2007

[BBC, 13 March; EUobserver.com, 14 March] Five Balkan states adopted a declaration on 12 March calling for the European Union (EU) to allow Bulgaria to restart its Kozloduy 3 and 4 nuclear power reactors. Bulgaria agreed to shut down the two Soviet-designed units by the end of 2006 as part of its EU accession treaty. However, Bulgaria, Serbia, Macedonia, Albania and Croatia said in a joint statement that they were "concerned about the current electricity supply problems in the region, which could result in higher economic and political instability." The statement also said that electricity prices in the region had risen 80-100% in the past year. Although the European Commission (EC) has yet to consider the proposal, Ferran Tarradellas, spokesman for the EU energy commissioner, said that conditions had not changed. He said, "Bulgaria has undertaken a commitment to close units 3 and 4 in Kozloduy as part of the accession treaty." Tarradellas added that the EU had already provided hundreds of millions of euros in assistance to Bulgaria to soften the blow of the closure. Slovakia and Lithuania have also asked the EC for permission to restart Soviet-era reactors shut down as part of their accession commitments.

Further information

Kozloduy NPP

European Commission

WNA's Early Soviet Reactors and EU Accession information paper

WNN: EU accession brings early reactor closures

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