European Commission president refuses to negotiate about prolonging of Ignalina NPP functioning with Lithuania
Lithuanian Prime Minister Gediminas Kirkilas negotiated with European Commission President José Manuel Barroso today on September, 17 in Brussels. The issue of Ignalina NPP was discussed at the meeting, REGNUM was informed at the presidential press office. According to the government press office of Lithuania, Gediminas Kirkilas expressed to Barroso his fears about implications of closing the Ignalina NPP in 2009 and “the problem of generating electricity because of Lithuania’s dependence from import of gas, which is delivered by a single source”. Furthermore, according to the leader, increase of oil and gas supply would also worsen the environment in the country.
In turn, Barroso agreed with necessity to solve the problem of Ignalina NPP, but by means of soonest integration of Lithuania in the EU electrical group. Currently, Lithuania has no power transmission lines with Western and Northern Europe and it was integrated solely to the Eastern direction. According to the EC president, it is necessary to continue developing the project of construction of a new NPP in Lithuania together with Latvia, Estonia and Poland, and the project to connect Lithuania’s electrical system to Poland and Sweden. Barroso proposed to Kirkilas to prepare a general action plan on connection of electrical systems of the Baltic countries with the electrical system of the EU. Barroso does not intend to hold discussions about implications of the closure of the Ignalina NPP, Reuters reports. “There is a treaty, legal obligations, which arise from the Treaty of Accession (of Lithuania into the European Union – REGNUM)”, the president of the European Commission said during a press conference after the meeting with Kirkilas. He also added ‘we could not make compromises because of security. Pacta sunt.” As REGNUM was informed at the presidential press service, after this meeting Kirkilas negotiated with President of the European Parliament Hans-Gert Pottering, where the issue of the Ignalina NPP was also discussed.
To remind, under demand of the European Union, the Ignalina NPP should be closed in 2009. This was one of conditions of Lithuania joining the EU. Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Poland are planning to build Ignalina-2 together, but despite negotiations of the states, they failed to decide what capacity the reactor will have and what amount of energy the participating states will receive. At the same time, an active campaign has been gaining momentum in Lithuania with a call for prolonging of Ignalina NPP functioning. On October 12, 2008, a referendum on prolonging functioning of the NPP after the year 2009 will be held simultaneously with elections. EU top officials repeatedly spoke against breach of obligations of Lithuania and prolongation of the Ignalina NPP functioning.
23:18 09/17/2008
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