The President thanked the European Commission for its active engagement in addressing key safety priorities relating to the Ostrovets nuclear facility at the EU level. Gitanas Nausėda underlined that the plant’s non-compliance with the EU requirements and recommendations was a test for the EU’s principled stand and consistency of policies. He pointed out that all stress-test recommendations were important and had to me implemented immediately.
At Lithuania’s initiative, the European Council agreed this past December on the need to ensure nuclear safety at the Belarusian plant and called on the European Commission to consider possible measures to prevent commercial imports of electricity from unsafe nuclear facilities operating in third countries.
“It is time for the member states to take collective action to protect the EU market from the import of unsafe electricity from third countries,” the President said. The President noted that proposals for a mechanism to deter the inflow of such electricity were awaited from the European Commission, as was agreed at the European Council meeting.
Gitanas Nausėda emphasized that Lithuania’s law on necessary measures against the threats posed by unsafe nuclear power plants in third countries should be respected by all states planning to operate in the Lithuanian market. It must be included, accordingly, in all relevant EU international agreements with third countries.
Among the other issues discussed during the conference call was the synchronization of electricity grids with continental Europe and the Rail Baltica project. The President accentuated that Lithuania expected the European Parliament to act in line all the agreements reached at the European Council meetings this past summer, including the multi-annual financial framework and the revival fund, and that the conditions of financing Rail Baltica would not be changed.