Poland to help build nuclear power plant in Lithuania

Poland will join an international project to build a nuclear power plant in Lithuania. Agreement to build this facility, which will replace the ageing Ignalina power plant in eastern Lithuania, will be signed this year – President of the PSE Polish energy company Jacek Socha has said.
This is a signal to Russia and Europe, experts say. Representatives of the electricity companies of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Poland met in Warsaw to discuss the project right at a time when Russia cut off the flow of oil to the EU over a transit fee dispute with Belarus. Lithuanian radio journalist Audrius Braukyla says the nuclear power plant project is a response to energy blackmail by Moscow.

'It’s the beginning of a new era in the energy field in this part of the world. It is not only about energy but it’s also about policy, especially now that the Polish oil company Orlen bought Lithuania’s biggest oil refinery Mazieikiu. Poland is now the biggest foreign investor in Lithuania. This is all a good sign of cooperation towards acquiring independent energy sources.'

Tomasz Chmal, an analyst at the Warsaw-based Sobieski Institute think tank, too, says the power plant project shows that the countries of this region are intent on pursuing a new policy that would guarantee security to them.

'We have to distinguish different issues – one is electricity in which Poland is independent thanks to its coal resources. Cooperation in electric energy is mainly for the benefit of Lithuania, helping it to diversify supplies. But in the area of natural gas and oil. Poland is highly dependent on Russian oil, which supplies over 95 percent of its needs.'

And if only for this reason Poland will not become independent of Russian oil and natural gas supplies in a foreseeable future. The recent cut of oil supplies over a dispute with Belarus, and when Russia closed the tap on its gas supplies through Ukraine to Europe, alarmed the European energy markets and made them question the reliability of Russia as a supplier. Ferran Tarradellas, a spokesman for the European Commission.

'The EC has underlined that it is unacceptable that energy suppliers or transit countries do not inform their counterparts of any decisions that may affect the supplies.'

Tomasz Chmal stresses the need for EU solidarity in the energy security field.

'I hope that Poland and the EU will find a common approach toward Russia. This is crucial to find a common ground for discussion and try to win individual interests, with one country playing against the other. There is a huge need for solidarity.'

The nuclear power plant to be built in Lithuania, with the participation of Poland, Latvia and Estonia, is expected to become operational by 2015. According to recent surveys some 60 percent of Poles are in favor of using nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.
Source:By Krysia Kołosowska, polskieradio.pl