COMMISSION URGED TO REVIEW NUCLEAR PLANT CLOSURE IN BULGARIA

The Finnish Prime Minister and the President of the European Commission have both been sent a letter urging them to review the policy of fully shutting down the Kozluduy Nuclear Power Plant in Bulgaria.

Matti Vanhanen and Jose Manuel Barroso were warned that unless the decision is reversed "we are going to see blackouts, hardships, environmental damage as well as increased Russian gas dependency in the Balkan region where social stability and economic recovery at this time are so important to us all.

The letter, composed Ari Vatanen, has been endorsed by fourteen others; including eight MEPs.

This letter follows a previous communication in June from Eija-Riitta Korhola to Finnish Minister for Trade and Industry, Mauri Pekkarinen, which argued against "the unnecessary and unfair closure of 4 out of the 6 units of the Kozludy Nuclear Power Plant".

The full text of the letter is as follows:

Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen
Valtioneuvoston kanslia
PL 23, 00023 Valtioneuvosto

matti.vanhanen@vnk.fi

President José Manuel Barroso
European Commission
Brussels

president@ec.europa.eu

Accession of Bulgaria to the European Union/Kozloduy

Strasbourg 13th December 2006

Dear Mr Prime Minister, Dear Mr President,

On Thursday 30th November, the European Parliament concluded its report on Bulgaria's accession to the European Union. Due to some last minute manoeuvring and misinformation from some Members and the fact that, despite his protestations, the Rapporteur was not called to speak and correct the misinformation, a significant paragraph of the report that was voted in Committee was lost. It refers to the closure dates and independently assessed safety of the Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant Units 3 and 4. As a condition of entering into accession negotiations, Bulgaria was obliged to close 4 units at Kozloduy - two have been closed for some years and the other two will close at the end of 2006.

I will not go into details here but I have attached a letter from my colleague Eija-Riitta Korhola to Minister Pekkarinen that was sent in June of this year. This letter is a fine and accurate summary of the history, potential consequences and the choices before us now. I have heard all the arguments of Treaty Obligations, compensation, honouring agreements etc. but the fact remains that unless you intervene now, we are going to see blackouts, hardship, environmental damage as well as increased Russian gas dependency in the Balkan region where social stability and economic recovery at this time are so important to us all. In addition, prematurely closing down fully operational, clean and profitable plants is not only economic madness - it is an utterly irresponsible waste of taxpayers' money - and runs counter to the Lisbon strategy on a competitive Europe, but it is also detrimental from the point of view of climate change as only lignite plants can partially replace this capacity. And this is set to happen just shortly after the publication of the startling Stern report on global warming!

As I see it, you as leaders of the European family have three options and little time to decide.

1. You can accept the points made in the attached E-R Korhola letter, previous EP reports and parliamentary Questions, and urgently propose in Council and in the Commission that a closure delay to allow a review is the only sensible action at this time. We all accept that the closure is now a treaty obligation but that there is overriding public interest at stake and the Council, together with the Commission must, I believe, find the way to do it.

2. You can propose a full review, along the lines of the Korhola letter, without a delay in the closure dates whilst accepting full responsibility for resultant blackouts, hardship, environmental damage and increased Russian gas dependency which are all evidently avoidable if option 1 were to be followed.

3. You can continue with the 'do nothing' line contained in countless answers to the Parliamentary Questions, Eija-Riitta Korhola's letter and previous Parliament reports. Of course, you must then also accept full responsibility for all the negative consequences given in option 2 - but for an indefinite period. The Finnish Presidency and the Barroso Commission would then be remembered as the missed opportunity to put pragmatism back into EU politics and procedures.

In recent weeks, the Bulgarian media have been very actively in touch with MEPs on this subject. I hope the next interview given will be to support you both in your positive response to this letter.

Yours, in hopeful anticipation of brave, sensible and pragmatic action from you as farsighted leaders of Europe,

Ari Vatanen
Member of the European Parliament

Accession of Bulgaria to the European Union/Kozloduy

Signatories of Ari Vatanen's 13 December 2006 letter to Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen and President José Manuel Barroso

MEPs

BROK, Elmar

CASHMAN, Michael

JORDAN-CIZELJ, Romana

KAUPPI, Piia-Noora

KORHOLA, Eija-Riitta

MCMILLAN-SCOTT, Edward

VAN ORDEN, Geoffrey

VIDAL-QUADRAS, Alejo

Observers

CAPPONE, Maria

IVANOVA, Iglika

KIRILOV, Evgeni

PARVANOVA, Antonyia

STOYANOV, Dimitar

VIGENIN, Kristian