Vilnius tries to stall discussion of Belarus NPP construction

The problem of public attitude to the Belarusian nuclear power plant is due to the fact that the Lithuanian authorities embraced delaying tactics towards the discussion of the Belarus NPP construction. Vilnius uses the same scenario it employed while discussing the Baltic NPP construction, head of the analytical department of Investment Company LMS Dmitry Kumanovsky told reporters, BelTA has learnt.

“Back then, the report on transboundary environmental impact assessment was in fact ignored by Lithuania, although the report was translated into the official language of the Baltic state. Lithuania did not disclose the essence of the report to the public, which was needed to enable consultations. It looks like Lithuania will proceed with attempts to impede the construction of the Belarusian nuclear power plant,” the Russian expert said.

Earlier, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection of Belarus made a statement saying that the Lithuanian authorities misinform the Lithuanian public about Belarus’ compliance with the Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context (the Espoo Convention). Belarus is fulfilling recommendations of the Implementation Committee under the Espoo Convention. For example, in line with these recommendations, Belarus kept working on the transboundary environmental impact assessment based on the final documents of the transboundary EIA of the Belarusian NPP on the Ostrovets site. Belarus provided Lithuania with the answers to all its questions. In line with the convention, Belarus suggested coordinating actions with Lithuania. However, Lithuania never responded to this suggestion.

Over the passed year and a half, Belarus frequently invited Lithuania, in writing and verbally, to hold consultations. Starting from February 2013 Belarus has been submitting these suggestions every month. Despite reasonable requests of Belarus and provisions of the convention, Vilnius never released the information submitted by Belarus.