Estonian Minister:
Talks over Visaginas nuclear power plant are advancing sluggishly

Latvian and Estonian leaders are not much impressed by their Lithuanian counterparts’ energy progress.

Lithuanian Minister of Energy Arvydas Sekmokas this week met with Estonian Minister of Economic Affairs Juhan Parts to discuss joint energy projects. According to Parts, the talks over Lithuania's planned Visaginas nuclear power plant are moving forward at a slow pace.

Currently, Lithuania is conducting negotiations with Latvia and Estonia as well as with the Hitachi Group, which was brought in as a strategic investor, ETV reported.

In June, Latvian Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis told media that if Latvian economic interests are ignored in the Visaginas project's concession contract,

Latvia will withdraw from the project. In response, Lithuania has pledged to take into consideration the interests of all the partners. However, the whole project might still collapse as a result of the Lithuanian Parliament's decision to hold a referendum on the nuclear power plant in October.

"Let us wait and see what the result of the referendum will be. What is most important is to answer the questions posed by Latvia and Estonia. Lithuania is ready to tackle all the issues that are not covered by the concession contract between Lithuania and the Hitachi Group. We are prepared to solve these issues and to establish the project implementation company," said Lithuanian Minister of Energy Arvydas Sekmokas. According to Sekmokas, Lithuanian public opinion is currently in favour of the nuclear power plant.

Estonian Minister of Economic Affairs Juhan Parts noted that if the Lithuanians reject the nuclear power plant project, it will leave Lithuania largely dependent on imported electricity, which could undermine the predictability and reliability of the whole Baltic electricity market in the eyes of the investors and the consumers.

"If a large proportion of the electricity is imported - 60 percent in the case of Lithuania today - the situation is precarious," Parts said.

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