From WAZ.euobserver.com

By Vesselin Zhelev

EU applicant Serbia is considering acquisition of a still undetermined stake in a new EUR 4 B nuclear power plant project of its eastern neighbour Bulgaria. The latter, a new EU member, is facing difficulties raising the needed money or attracting an investor, media reported at the weekend.

Bulgarian prime minister Boiko Borisov said Serbian president Boris Tadic agreed that his country join the construction of the two-unit, 2,000 megawatt plant near the Danube port of Belene, some 250km northeast of Sofia. Mr Borisov and Mr Tadic met on Friday in Bulgaria's Black Sea government residence of Evksinograd.

Bulgaria resumed the long-frozen construction of the Belene plant under the previous Socialist-led government, which had warm ties with Moscow. It commissioned a Russian contractor to supply the reactors.

Pro-western Borisov, a former policeman who rose to power on populism, first threatened to scrap the project, saying it would exceed the forecast cost by some EUR 3 B due to inflation and the nearby infrastructure the plant would require. Stung by his comments, German power supplier RWE, which was a potential investor in the initial Belene plan, pulled out last year, leaving Bulgaria penniless and stuck with a project it could not finance on its own.

By opposing Belene, Mr Borisov won loud praise from Bulgaria's post-Cold War foreign mentor - the United States. US ambassador in Sofia James Warlick has repeatedly commended Mr Borisov in public for his willingness to revise energy projects his predecessors had signed with Russia.

These projects, which also include an oil pipeline to Greece and a gas pipe to the Adriatic and Italy, are widely seen as vehicles of Russian influence in the Balkans, which the US has been striving to roll back.

However Mr Borisov softened his anti-Belene rhetoric when the Russians threatened to demand hundreds of millions of euros in indemnities from cash-strapped Bulgaria should it scrap the plant construction. The reactors for it have already been paid for.

"We are not giving up Belene. We are just suspending it until a strategic investor turns up," became Mr Borisov's new mantra. He went so far as to tell the Sofia-based Nova TV he expected EU energy commissioner Guenther Oettinger to help Bulgaria in that respect during a planned visit later this year.

Mr Borisov has balked at repeated Russian proposals to fund Belene through a loan.

A diplomat in Sofia, speaking on condition of anonymity, voiced suspicions that a possible engagement of Serbia, a long-time Moscow loyalist in the Balkans, might just be a vehicle for Russian investment and ownership in Belene.

"Taking Serbia on board might mean letting the Russians in through the backdoor and a face-saving move for Borisov who pretends he tries to keep them out," the diplomat said.

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