Bulgaria will ask the EU for 500 million euros of additional aid as a compensation for the closure of Units 3 and 4 of the "Kozlodui Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) said Deputy Prime Minister Ivailo Kalfin, cited by Sega daily. That will happen in 2009 during the review of the budget framework for 2010 - 2013.

So far Bulgaria has received 250 million euro in compensation for the period by the end of 2009. It is not clear what part of the required aid would be directly used for the closure of the units and what portion would be used for energy efficiency and for construction of a new nuclear power plant. "The minimum amount our country would agree on is 250-300 million euros", Kalfin said.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs added that the agreement of the EU member states that Bulgaria should be further compensated entered the records back in 2006. Sources, well acquainted with the situation, add that it is still possible that some states try to reduce the amount in order to avoid expenditure.

Minister Kalfin leaves for Moscow on Thursday and Friday where he will meet with his colleague Sergei Lavrov and the Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Sobianin. Together with his Russian colleagues he is going to discuss whether Moscow has changed its investment plans for some of the energy projects after the major reduction in prices of energy resources.

He will also show interest in the deadlines for their implementation. The biggest ones are "Southern Stream" and "Belene" Nuclear Power Plant.

During the weekend it turned out that the long anticipated turning the first sod of our second NPP will be delayed again - this time for the autumn of 2009. The explanation given by the Nuclear Regulatory Agency states that an enormous amount of documentation needs to be reviewed and part of it has not even arrived yet. Not too long ago the Minister of Economy Petar Dimitrov claimed that the construction would have been started in March.