Lithuanian position concerning Belarusian nuclear power plant remains negative

The position of Lithuania on construction of the Belarusian nuclear power plant has not changed. BelaPAN was informed about that by the head of the Nuclear Energy Commission of Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania Rokas Žilinskas.

‘The position of Lithuania has not changed in the result of consultations with Belarus, as the Belarusian side has left our questions unanswered, and in particular the question about the criterions of choice of Astravets site for placing the nuclear power plant there,’ the Lithuanian parliamentarian explained.

Lithuania is against placing the future Belarusian nuclear power plant at Astravets site, near the Lithuanian border and less than 50 kilometers away from Vilnius.

Rokas Žilinskas called the Belarusian-Lithuanian consultations on this issue ‘a pure formality, which Belarus wants to use in order to demonstrate that it follows the procedures of the Espoo Convention (the Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context) without paying attention to the results and contents’.

‘After the consultations in June Lithuania has not changed its position on the Belarusian nuclear power plant. Besides, Lithuania has already sent its official assessment of these consultations and requested additional information from Belarus’, said the head of the parliamentary commission.

The official letter to the deputy minister of Natural Resources and Environment of Belarus Vital Kulik was sent on 9 June. In the letter Deputy Minister of Environment of Lithuania Aleksandras Spruogis asks to hold in Lithuania repeated public hearings concerning the preliminary report on environmental impact assessment of the future nuclear power plant, and also a new bilateral meeting to continue consultations in the framework of the Espoo Convention.