Lithuania Parliament endorses nuclear plant project
21.06.2012, 14:28On 21 June, Lithuania's Parliament passed the law on granting concession to the Visaginas nuclear power plant project company and also amended the law on the nuclear power plant to officially open the way for the multi-billion project to go ahead. All what is needed now are the symbolic signatures of President Grybauskaite, writes news2biz Lithuania.
Both acts were passed mostly by the ruling centre-right coalition as the opposition leader SocDem party (one of the expected winners of the next general election in October) did not take part in the vote. Only 74 MPs were present during the vote out of in the 141-seat Seimas; 70 voted 'for'.
The concession law gives the final OK for Lithuania together with Latvia, Estonia and, potentially, Poland to start the N-plant project with the strategic investor Japan's Hitachi. Lithuania has earlier signed a preliminary concession agreement with Hitachi but binding deals are yet to be signed with the project's regional partners.
The amended law on the nuclear power plant breaks down the project into four stages. Upon completion of three of them - signing of the concession agreement, establishing of the project company and drafting of the N-plant project, the Seimas will once again vote to allow the construction to start because it is only then that the final financial details of the undertaking will be known.