The president slammed the way Bulgaria tied its EU accession down to the closure of another two nuclear units, saying it was a "huge mistake".

"Our politicians made a huge mistake by bonding Bulgaria's EU entry to the decommissioning of units 3 and 4 at Kozloduy power plant," President Parvanov said Friday at a round table on the possibilities for reviving the nuclear units. Ironically an electricity failure interrupted for while the speech of the president.

"The negotiating teams failed to agree on beneficial for the country conditions, unlike other candidates," Parvanov said. He even went as far as to hint this has been deliberately done.

"Bulgaria failed to provide strong arguments for modernizing, rather than closing units 3 and 4. It could be that some one just did not want to put all the arguments on the table."

Geoffrey Van Orden, former rapporteur for Bulgaria and an adamant supporter of a delay in the decommissioning of the nuke units, confirmed his position in a letter to the roundtable.

The British MEP pointed out that not only Bulgaria, but also the countries from the region and the EU member states will feel the impact of the looming energy crisis. He backed the president's proposal for a new a peer review.

Just a day earlier Parvanov told European parliamentarians that Bulgaria would accept a peer review of the units 3 and 4 of the Kozloduy NPP.

In his first address to the European Parliament since Bulgaria became a EU member he criticized the EU required shutdown of the two units, warning that it could lead to instability in the region.

Parvanov said he had been "provoked" by the comments of EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs, who on Tuesday ruled out reopening the two reactors, while stressing his readiness to discuss energy problems facing Sofia and its neighbours.

The whole region faces a "severe energy crisis" as a result of the nuclear shutdowns, Parvanov said in his address to the EP in Brussels.

Unlike Romanian President Traian Basescu who addressed the plenary sitting Wednesday, the Bulgarian president was applauded by the MEPs, who rose on their feet after his speech.

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