Seimas setting up task force for agreement on Astravyets N-plant

Last week, the parliament authorized Virgilijus Poderys, chairman of the parliamentary Energy Commission, to set up the force.

In his words, the group’s tasks will include coordination of actions on the Astravyets NPP issue among all key state institutions and the public.

Seimas Vice-Speaker Gediminas Kirkilas says the task force should maintain contacts with the ministries of Environment, Energy and Foreign Affairs.

On February 10, leaders of Lithuanian parliamentary political parties agreed on closer coordination of efforts to block electricity from a nuclear power plant that Belarus is building in Astravyets, just around 50 kilometers from Vilnius.

The leaders of eight parties pledged to unanimously support a law that would declare the Astravyets plant unsafe and ban selling electricity produced in the facility on the Lithuanian market.

Lithuania says that Belarus fails to follow safety standards and international environmental requirements in building the plant, but Minsk rejects the criticism as unfounded.