“Lithuania’s goal was to secure a separate financial instrument for the INPP decommissioning INPP after 2020 to ensure a continuous funding for project. We have managed to achieve this and we now have intensive negotiations on the amount of financial support ahead of us,” the minister said in a press release on Wednesday.
“The EC proposal marks the beginning of a long road, but it provides a solid and good starting position for talks on further funding for the INPP closure with EU member states and the European Parliament,” he added.
Lithuania was allocated 450 million euros for the decommissioning project in the 2014-2020 financial framework, below the requested amount of 770 million euros, but well above the Commission’s initial proposal of 229 million euros.
Lithuania estimates that it will need another 1.3 billion euros for the Ignalina decommissioning until 2038. It has asked for around 780 million euros in EU funding for the project in 2021-2027.
In addition to the EU money, the decommissioning is being financed from a national fund that contributes 14 percent of the value of closure projects.