PES Leader: Bulgarian Govt Clueless about Belene N-Plant Project

Bulgarian Socialist Party leader Sergey Stanishev has reiterated his criticism of the government's recent moves regarding the abandoned Belene Nuclear Power Plant project.

Stanishev, who was recently elected as president of the Party of European Socialists, has told reporters that he is "shocked" by the government's "irresponsible and gullible" approach to Belene.

He reminded that Prime Minister Boyko Borisov has been changing his mind far too frequently on the project.

The leader of the pro-Belene left wing party said that Belene NPP would only make sense if both the project for its construction and its entire activity are controlled by the government.

Otherwise, no one could guarantee that a private company would not collect the whole profit, he pointed out.

Last week, the recently registered and largely unknown Global Power Consortium expressed interest in taking over the project to install two 1,000 megawatt nuclear reactors at the Danube River town of Belene and build it without state funds or guarantees.

The Bulgarian government scrapped the Belene NPP project earlier in 2012, declaring it economically unfeasible. The Bulgarian Socialist Party then launched a petition for a referendum on the Russian-Bulgarian project's fate.

The referendum is expected to take place within the next three month. The ruling centrist-right GERB has said it would not negotiate with the mysterious investor before the referendum.

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