Sun, Nov 22 2009
Serbia is in danger of electricity shortage because of the closure of units three and four of Bulgaria's Kozloduy nuclear power plant (NPP).
The units were shut down on December 31 2006 and Bulgaria decreased its energy export several times, Serbian newspaper Politika said.
Another reason was weather conditions in Southeastern Europe, which caused low level of the Danube, Morava and Drina rivers and lower electricity production of the water energy plants in the region.
An energy collapse is expected as meteorologists predict that summer 2007 will be the hottest one within a century, Politika said. Electricity consumption in winter and summer is almost equal due to the air conditioning usage.
According to energy experts Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia will suffer the most from the eventual energy crisis.
The energy shortage will lead to increase in the price of electricity and delay of the economic growth in the whole region.
Welcomed by the UK government, France and Germany, as well as the US, the naming of Belgium’s Herman van Rompuy as European Council President and Catherine Ashton as foreign policy chief has caused misgivings in some circles, including Turkey which believes that Van Rompuy will oppose Turkish membership of the bloc.
The dinner meeting of EU leaders to decide on the European Council President and the bloc’s new foreign minister and head of secretariat could take a few hours or all night, says host Fredrik Reinfeldt, Sweden’s prime minister.
Russia and the European Union have agreed on an early warning system if another natural gas cutoff looms. Some say that Bulgaria, among other countries hard-hit by the January 2009 crisis, is now better prepared. Not everyone is convinced.
Five Bulgarian films screened at the World Film Festival in Bangkok.
A complicated game, played partly in the dark, and with elements of everything from poker to tug ‘o war – that’s the way Europe’s leaders will come up with its new European Council President, foreign minister and European Commission.