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Lithuania Marshals Forces for Building New Nuclear Plant
Lithuanian government launched the program for merging private and state energy companies of the country to implement a new ambitious project: to build Novo-Ignalinsk atomic power plant for exporting electric energy to Poland and Sweden. Lithuania wants to invest $2.6 billion into the project. However, the project has already triggered an international scandal: Latvia and Estonia, to whom 33-percent participation in the new atomic plant was promised, protest against Lithuania’s unilateral decision to sell 22 percent to Poland.
Lithuanian authorities launched the program for merging the country’s private and state energy companies into a unified energy holding. The holding will include the state enterprise of electric distribution network Rytu skirstomieji tinklai (RST) and similar private enterprise Vakaru skirstomieji tinklai (VST).
RST and VST will be merged into state energy enterprise Lietuvos energija. The holding’s chief shareholder will be Lithuanian government (no less than 51 percent of shares). The state now owns 96.59 percent of Lietuvos energija and 71.35 percent of RST shares.
The main task of the super-holding will be to implement the project of building Novo-Ignalinsk atomic power plant before 2015, and the power lines from it to Poland and Sweden no later than by 2013.
However, a scandal is already spinning off around the project. Lithuania’s partners, Latvia and Estonia, were to have 33 percent each in the project, while Lietuvos energija was to have 34 percent. Yet, Lithuanian Prime Minister Gedyminas Kirkilas and his Polish counterpart Jaroslaw Kaczynski signed a treaty in Warsaw in February, according to which 22 percent of the new atomic plant will be given to Poland’s energy company Polskie Sieci Elektroenergetyczne (PSE).
Latvia and Estonia protest against Lithuania-Poland’s agreement. Thus, it is unclear whether Lithuania will be able to retain its Baltic partners. It will not be able to implement the project on its own.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Mar. 24, 2007
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