Belene

Serbia and North Macedonia have shown interest in participating in neighbouring Bulgaria's project for construction of Belene nuclear power plant (NPP), Bulgarian deputy prime minister Tomislav Donchev said, reports SeeNews. 

Donchev told this to told Sofia-based Trud daily, Tanjug is reporting on Wednesday.

After the parliamentary meeting with Dmitry Medvedev, Ataka's leader and deputy chairman of the Friendship Group with Russia, Volen Siderov, commented that Bulgaria should not allow "any foreign finger to intervene again to stop" TurkStream. " According to his words, the Prime Minister realizes and works for the realization of "Turkish Stream" and Belene NPP.

After talks between Prime Minister Boyko Borissov and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev we can not talk about increasing dependence on Russia in any way. This is what the Minister of Energy Temenujka Petkova commented this morning to NOVA.

Bulgaria and Russia will cooperate in a number of areas, including energy, and this does not call into question our country's membership of the EU and NATO, but there are still many aspects of bilateral relations that need to be significantly improved.

"Rosatom has declared its readiness to take part in the implementation of this project. Today we see the constructive attitude of the current Bulgarian government, which intends to give a 'restart' to the construction of the Belene NPP.

Rosatom, the Russian state-owned corporation, is on the same footing with other contenders to participate in the Belene nuclear power plant renewal competition in Bulgaria and is able to complete the construction of this site in a short time.

The Bulgarian authorities plan to start selecting a strategic investor for the construction of the Belene nuclear power plant before the end of February, Energy Minister Temenuzhka Petkova said in an interview with the national radio on Sunday, reports TASS.

The US Company General Electric expressed interest in participating as potential supplier of equipment and engineer of the Belene NPP project, reported the Bulgarian National Radio.

Reuters reported that Bulgaria plans to open a tender to pick a strategic investor for its revived Belene nuclear power project on the Danube next month and to pick a winner by the end of 2019.