German energy giant RWE launched a joint venture with the Bulgarian NEK to develop the Balkan country's second nuclear power plant.

The Essen-based company would invest 1.275 billion Euro (USD 1.84 billion) for a 49 percent stake in the venture, the government in Sofia said. The project with RWE would have an "enormous" impact for Bulgaria in context of the global financial crisis, Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev said after the contract was signed.

Bulgaria appointed RWE as the strategic partner in the development of the plant at Belene on the Danube. Sofia, which joined the European Union in 2007, chose the Russian Atomstroiexport to construct the four billion Euro plant, with a target completion date in 2014.

The Belene power plant would run two 1,000-megawatt reactors, offsetting the loss of four of the six reactors in Bulgaria's other plant, at Kozloduy, 100 kilometres upstream.

Under pressure from the EU, Bulgaria agreed to shut down the old, Soviet-era generators at Kozloduy, where it still operates two modern 1,000MW reactors. The authorities decided to revive the two-decade-old plans for the Belene plant in 2002.