President Of Lithuania: BelNPP Is EU-Wide Problem
- 20.01.2020, 11:09
- 2,612
Gitanas Nausėda promises to continue raising the Astravets NPP issue at the highest level.
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda promises to continue addressing the issue of the Belarusian nuclear power plant (BelNPP) under construction in Astravets at the highest level. According to him, the European Union and its leaders should understand that this is a problem of the entire EU. Delfi.lt writes about it.
"I will not stop raising this issue at the highest level to make the entire EU and its leaders realize that the construction of the Belarusian nuclear power plant is not the problem of Lithuania alone, and not only that of Latvia and Poland. This is a problem of the entire European Union," - the president said to reporters in Plunge on Thursday.
He stresses that at the moment constructive discussions on the NPP issue are underway with Poland, Latvia and Estonia.
"First of all, we are talking about Lithuania's decision not to purchase electricity produced at the possibly unsafe power plant, if it is launched in the future. Poland has decided the same thing. Latvia and Estonia have not yet made up their minds," - Nauseda explains.
He also emphasizes that at the initiative of the Presidential Palace, laws and regulations have already been adopted, which will make it possible to block the transit of electricity from the BelAES to the Lithuanian market.
"Belarus has reacted very seriously, they have realized that Lithuania has firmly chosen this position, and now it is trying to find elsewhere on the side," - Nauseda says.
In early December, Foreign Minister Linas Linkevičius said that the EU agencies were working hard to make the allies understand the Lithuanian behavior.
Meanwhile, Energy Minister Žygimantas Vaičiūnas said in December that the safety of the BelNPP should become a priority task of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Lithuania doubts that Belarus will take specific steps to address the defects in the first reactor of the plant even before its commissioning.
Nuclear fuel will be delivered to the first reactor of the BelNPP in the first quarter of 2020.
