Brussels, 07/02/2007 (Agence Europe) - Visiting Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, on Tuesday, UK Minister of State for Europe Geoff Hoon, cautioned Bulgaria not to seek to re-open the two nuclear reactors it closed when it joined the European Union last month. Reactors 3 and 4 at the Kozloduy nuclear plant (Bulgaria's only nuclear plant) closed on 31 December 2006 as agreed by Bulgaria in order to be able to join the EU on 1 January 2007. 'We should respect the details of the accession treaty. It is important that that treaty is implemented,' Hoon told a press conference, adding: 'I do not believe that it would send the right signal at this stage if we sought to reopen that treaty,' warning that enlargement remained a sensitive issue in some EU member states. At the end of January, Bulgaria said it would ask the EU for permission to restart the two reactors following electricity shortages in the Balkans (where Bulgaria was the biggest power supplier until the end of last year, see EUROPE 9357), or demand more money for the closures. Last week, EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs formally ruled out re-opening the two Bulgarian nuclear reactors, but his spokesperson Ferran Tarradellas said, in an interview on Tuesday with Bulgarian newspaper Dnevnik, that the issue had already been sealed with Bulgaria's signing of its Accession Treaty. Howerver, he also said 'if Bulgaria demands more money for Kozloduy, we are ready to hear its arguments.' Bulgaria hopes to get a doubling of the €570 million compensation it received for the two shut-downs. Tarradellas warned Sofia not to push things too far, adding that the Bulgarian president, Gueorgui Parvanov, had not done his country any favours by slamming Commissioner Piebalgs' views last week. (eh)