04/06/2021 (Agence Europe) – “The European Commission insists that Belarus continue to engage on nuclear safety of Ostrovets in complete transparency”, said Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson on Wednesday 2 June, while calling on Minsk to implement all peer review recommendations as soon as possible (see EUROPE 12671/32). The Commissioner also regretted that Belarus decided to start commercial operation of the nuclear power plant, located only 50 km from Vilnius, “without addressing all the safety recommendations contained in the 2018 EU stress test report”. While a second visit by ENSREG experts to the plant site would normally be planned, Ms Simson told MEPs on 26 May that she did not know when this mission would take place in view of the recent tensions between the EU and Minsk. See the Commissioner’s statement: https://bit.ly/3fPxPlJ (DG)