Members of the European Parliament's Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) approved on March 19 approved an opinion on a draft Council regulation for the decommissioning of nuclear plants in Bulgaria, Slovakia and Lithuania.

The draft regulation sets the amounts the Council may grant for the dismantling of nuclear reactors in the three countries in the period 2014-2020.

The sums are are considerably higher than the amounts proposed by the Commission, namely: EUR 260 M (compared with EUR 208 M proposed by the Commission) for Kozloduy in Bulgaria, EUR 400 M (EUR 230 M) for Ignalina and EUR 200 M (EUR 115 M) for Bohunice in Slovakia.

Bulgaria's allocation of EUR 260 M in the period 2014-2020 is to be used for the irreversible closure and decommissioning of units 1-4 of the Kozloduy NPP.

In mid-February, Tomislav Donchev and Nikolay Mladenov, former Ministers in the center-right GERB government, made clear that Bulgaria had negotiated to extend talks for more funding after 2020.

Meanwhile, Bulgarian MEP Ivaylo Kalfin argued Tuesday that the negotiated nuclear decommissioning funding would be insufficient and insisted that Bulgaria had to take advantage of the blocking of the long-term EU budget 2014-20 by the European Parliament to try to secure more funding.