Baltic countries in joint effort to block electricity from Astravyets nuclear plant

According to him, Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian ministers responsible for electricity will formulate a joint position on the project they believe is unsafe and violates international agreements on environmental impact.

“We agreed to work out a joint position that would reflect the Baltic states’ concern over the Astravyets nuclear power plant, which does not meet the environmental and nuclear safety requirements, and joint measures, which the Baltic countries intend to take if these requirements are not met, including restricting access for ‘unclean’ electricity to the Baltic market,” Masiulis, who met with his Latvian and Estonian counterparts in Riga last week, told BNS.

“What is especially important is that all three of us have started speaking about Astravyets. Only the Estonian minister had said this in a bilateral meeting before and now three ministers discussed this,” he said.

Lithuania has been the fiercest critic of Belarus’ nuclear power plant project.

The Lithuanian energy minister last year sent a letter to his Latvian, Estonian, Finnish and Polish counterparts, calling on them to look for ways to ban electricity imports from unsafe nuclear power plants under construction in Belarus and Russia’s Kaliningrad.

Masiulis said after a meeting with Estonia’s economics minister in January that Estonia supported the idea of not buying electricity from the Astravyets plant. However, according to the Lithuanian minister, Finland does not back this idea.

Latvian Prime Minister Maris Kucinskis has also pledged to support Lithuania on the issue of the Astravyets nuclear power plant safety.

Polish Energy Minister Krzysztof Tchorzewski has told Masiulis recently that electricity generated by unsafe power plants should not reach the market.