EU partners Poland, Lithuania reconsider hooking-up power grids

European Union partners Poland and Lithuania are considering hooking up their electrical power grids, Poland's Economy Minister Piotr Wozniak said Thursday. Lithuania is also keen to involve non-nuclear Poland in the construction of a new third nuclear reactor at its Soviet-era Ignalina facility, but no concrete decisions have yet been made.

Fellow EU Baltic states Latvia and Estonia have also been invited to invest in the venture, seen as key to ensuring energy security in a region heavily dependent on Russian energy supplies.

"There have been big changes in the energy supply market in our region in recent years," Poland's Wozniak said, quoted by the Polish PAP news agency.

"Estonia and Latvia have hooked up with a big transit cable, Lithuania have confirmed building a transit cable to Sweden and plan to lay a similar cable to Finland," he said, explaining Poland's decision to reconsider hooking up with north-eastern neighbour Lithuania.

Minister Wozniak was speaking at Poland's 16th annual Krynica Economic Forum which runs through to Saturday. Its aim is to facilitate growth in the emerging economies of Central and Eastern Europe.

Dubbed the "Polish Davos", the event has drawn political and business leaders from across Central and Eastern Europe and beyond to the Polish mountain resort of Krynica.
Source:rawstory.com