Bulgarian President Parvanov told the EP the reactors at the Kozloduy plant are safe

Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov urged the European Union to reconsider a deal that forces the country to shut down Soviet-era nuclear reactors, causing power shortages in the region.

Bulgaria has closed two of the four reactors at the Kozloduy plant under the treaty that allowed the Black Sea state to join the EU on Jan. 1 along with neighbouring Romania Reuters news agency reported. Brussels had insisted on the closures out of safety concerns.

But Parvanov told the European Parliament the reactors were safe and invited more EU inspections to review the evidence.

"If our EU partners find it necessary, Bulgaria may agree to a new peer review to the units 3 and 4 of our nuclear power plant," he said.

"All experts agreed there are no technical barriers to the day-to-day operations of these units, they also pointed to high level of safety of those units," he added.

Parvanov said shutting down the reactors had led to power shortages in the Balkan region, which might bring economic and political instability.

"Some of the countries of the region have serious energy shortages and power cuts. When you combine this with the increase of prices it may lead to political and economic instability of the whole region," he said.

Power-hungry Albania called on the EU this week to review the closure of the units until alternative resources were built, saying it had disrupted the Balkan electricity market.

Lack of rain, almost drying up the reservoirs of its hydro-electric schemes, along with the failure of suppliers to respect contracts because of the Bulgarian plant closure have caused power cuts of 12 hours a day in Albania since November.

Bulgarian officials have said the country will ask the EU to increase the planned financial compensation for the shutdown.

The EU has earmarked 220 million euros ($290 million) for the decommissioning of the reactors, but Bulgaria says Lithuania and Slovakia, which joined the EU in 2004, are to receive much more generous compensation for shutting down their Soviet-designed nuclear power plants.

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