Brussels, 07/03/2007 (Agence Europe) - Lithuanian prime minister Gediminas Kirkilas and Polish prime minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski signed a bilateral communiqué on energy cooperation in Warsaw on 2 March. The communiqué underlines the importance of the four-party cooperation between Lithuania, Poland, Estonia and Latvia in a new nuclear power project launched in February 2006 to rebuild one or more nuclear reactors at Ignalina in Lithuania, where the last remaining nuclear reactor will be decommissioned at the end of 2009. The project could cost up to EUR 6 bn (see EUROPE 9374). The countries in question aim to start work in 2009, to be completed in 2015. The new plant will be called 'Visaginas'. Lithuania is working on a new law which will require parliament endorsement before a call for tender can be launched for building the new plant. Four companies have already come forward - Areva of France, General Electric and Westinghouse of the US and Toshiba of Japan. The Lithuanian government has decided the plant will have 3200 MW capacity which, depending on which company is selected, will require the building of 2, 3 or 4 reactors.
Lithuania is also planning to set up a consortium of national energy companies, Lietuvos Energiya (Lithuania), Polskie Sieci Elektroenergyetyzcne (Poland), Latvenergo (Latvia) and Eesti Energia (Estonia). The Lithuanian government wants a 34% controlling minority stake in the consortium that will manage the power plant with each of the other companies having a 22% stake - Poland is reported to have already accepted this breakdown. On Monday, Kirkilas told reporters that these requirements are justified and other partners 'more or less agree' with them. Although the bilateral communiqué stressed the importance of the new nuclear deal to the four countries in question, disagreements were being voiced in Estonia the next day, where according to AFP reports, an aide to Estonia's economy minister, Edgard Savisaar, said Estonia could pull out of the project because the new agreement between Lithuania and Poland had breached the original agreement because Lithuania had 'unilaterally' brought Poland into the deal. 'The Estonian government has to decide now whether to agree to this breach of our existing agreement by Lithuania,' Heido Vitsur told reporters. An official at Estonian energy firm Eesti Energia also objected that the breakdown of the countries' stakes also went against the original agreement.
Kaczynski and Kirkilas also agreed to build an electricity bridge (powerbridge) between Poland and Lithuania 'as soon as possible.' (eh)