During her visit to Bucharest on Monday Meglena Kuneva, Bulgaria’s EU Commissioner for consumer protection, dodged a discussion on the re-opening of two reactors at the Bulgarian nuclear plant Kozloduy despite she has had several interventions on the issue both in Brussels and Sofia.

While in Bucharest, she only tackled the EU energy policy issue. In Bulgaria however, she is actively involved in the country’s efforts to restart the two nuclear reactors, which were closed before the country joined the EU on January 1, 2007. On the very day of her visit to Bucharest, Kuneva was quoted by Bulgarian news website Sofia Echo urging action to restart the units.

Bulgaria should act for the re-opening of the Kozloduy reactors instead of just talking about it, she was quoted as saying. But in Bucharest, when asked by a journalist about her involvement in talks on Kozloduy, she opted to talk only about the need of an efficient energy policy for the whole EU.

She spoke of Slovakia and Lithuania, which were also forced to close nuclear reactors when they joined the Union, but she dodged a clear answer on her involvement in the Kozloduy debate. She said Bulgaria just like Romania was considering the development of alternative energy sources.

Kuneva was in Bucharest for talks with government members and representatives of the National Agency for Consumer Protection, where she was presented Romania’s action plan in this field.