EU backs European investor for Bulgarian nuclear plant

(SOFIA) - EU Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger on Tuesday backed Bulgarian efforts to find a European investor for a new nuclear plant in Bulgaria that a Russian company has been hired to build.

"We are very cautious about this project. We are aware of Bulgaria's existing contracts, which it should meet.

"But we also have a marked interest in having European participaton in the project," Oettinger told journalists on the sidelines of an energy forum in Sofia.

Bulgaria has hired Russian company Atomstroyexport to build the long-delayed 2,000-megawatt plant at Belene, on the Danube.

But lack of funding and the withdrawal last year of German utility RWE, which held a 49 percent stake in the 10-billion-euro (13.5-billion-dollar) plant, has forced Bulgaria to mull an additional 2.0 billion euros in proposed Russian funding until it finds a new strategic partner.

"We will hold active consultations to harmonise Bulgaria's interest in the project with that of the EU, taking into account the existing contracts and the investment already made, but also the possibility for including a private European investor in the project," Oettinger said Tuesday.

Dropping the deal with Russia would cause Bulgaria to lose 1.2 billion euros already invested in Belene, plus an additional 600 to 900 million euros in damages to be paid to Atomstroyexport, Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov said.

"We do not have and will not have in the coming years the money to either pay the damages or continue construction," Borisov insisted at the forum.

But Oettinger's position prompted him to later admit: "We cannot only accept the Russian money... We will continue only if we have an European investor."

He said he counted on Oettinger's "commitment" to help Bulgaria find this new investor.

In the meantime, Bulgaria will also launch procedures to extend by another 10 years the operational capacity of two remaining reactors at its sole nuclear plant at Kozloduy, which would otherwise expire in 2017 and 2019, Borisov said.