Brussels, 06/01/2000 (Agence Europe) - On 31 December 1999, the foreign minister of Lithuania, Algirdas Saudargas, signed with the European Commission a memorandum for providing Lithuania with a 10 million euro grant from the EU 1999 budget, with a view to preparing the closure of the Ignalina nuclear power plant, which currently produces 85% of the Lithuanian energy consumption. The grant is part of a total package of 150 million euros from the PHARE budget covering a seven-year period (2000-2006), and comprises annual grants of 20 million euros.
The financing memorandum foresees that all the contracts must be signed by the 31 December 2001 while the deadline for the disbursement of grants if the end of 2002. All the amounts that have not be disbursed by this date will be returned to the Commission.
The Lithuanian government reached agreement with the European Commission in view of closing Ignalina's unit 1 by 2005, while a decision on the closure of unit 2 will be taken before the end of 2004 (which according to the Commission will lead to the closure of the unit by 2009 at the latest).