Brussels, 19/03/2013 (Agence Europe) - The energy committee of the European Parliament has called for amendment of the legal base for assistance provided to Lithuania for the decommissioning of the Ignalina nuclear power plant.
On Tuesday 19 March, the energy committee adopted its opinion on the new Council regulation that will extend EU financial support to the decommissioning of nuclear power plants in Bulgaria (Kozloduy, reactors 1-4), Lithuania (Ignalina, reactors 1 and 2) and Slovakia (Bohunice V1, reactors 1 and 2). The text sets out the multiannual financial framework 2014-2020 for assistance to decommissioning, and the conditions to be met for support to be granted. Regarding criteria to be met, MEPs suggest that certain objectives must be met by all three countries, such as complete transposition into the national body of law of the directive on nuclear safety. They also propose that the Commission should assess and report on progress accomplished by end 2017, and not 2015 as initially proposed. Finally, they suggest amending the legal base for the programme for Lithuania which is not appropriate for setting financing in place after 2013.
The financial envelope proposed by the Commission for implementation of the programme for 2014-2020 amounts to €552.947 million, €208.503 million of which is for Kozloduy, €229.629 million for Ignalina and €114.815 million for Bohunice (from 2014 to 2017 for Ignalina and Bohunice). Early February, the Council proposed the following breakdown for a total envelope of €860 million: €262 million for Kozloduy, €400 million for Ignalina and €200 million for Bohunice. The Parliament, which was only consulted, makes no proposals kin relation to the budget of the programmes. (EH/transl.jl)