Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-05-19-Speech-3-961"
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"en.20100519.24.3-961"2
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"In 1999, the European Commission, acting on behalf of the European Union, obliged Bulgaria to close four of its six nuclear power plants as a precondition for its accession negotiations. The Commission had been saying for some time that the units in question were eligible for financial improvements. Under the agreement, two units were closed in 2002, and the other two in 2006. After considerable sums of investment and a number of independent surveys, the units were found to meet all the safety criteria and, according to the Council’s Atomic Questions Group, no additional monitoring was needed. Bulgaria had become a net exporter of electricity to all its neighbouring countries and sometimes accounted for 100% of the region’s electricity deficit. The remaining units, however, were closed under the agreement, the region suffered power cuts and the substitute plants resulted in an increase in greenhouse gases. I myself put a question to the Commission and the Council, basing it on Mr Van Orden’s report on the application by the Republic of Bulgaria to become a member of the European Union, and its paragraph 33. In it, the European Parliament asked the Council to view the closure dates more flexibly until new generation could be built that would not increase emissions, which would not be before 2011. The answer was no, however, and instead, the EU showed its solidarity with Bulgaria in the form of considerable sums in financial assistance. That is why it is only right to continue providing finance for longer than was planned, because the loss of electricity generation capacity, not to speak of the other strains on the region, have been economically and socially serious for Bulgaria. In all honesty, though, we have to ask whether this massive financial investment could have been avoided if the Commission and the Council had reconsidered its inflexible and questionable conditions."@en1
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