Lithuania and Poland said Monday they were poised to sign a deal linking their electricity supply grids, resolving a key sticking point in related talks on constructing a new nuclear power plant."I have been invited to visit Warsaw on February 12. We plan to sign documents on the construction of the energy bridge between Lithuania and Poland during the visit," Lithuanian Economy Minister Vytas Navickas told reporters after talks with his Polish counterpart Waldemar Pawlak.
The power grid link, which is meant to be on line by 2010, is seen as a crucial way to help Lithuania cope with the planned closure of its Soviet-era Ignalina nuclear power plant by tying its grid into the power systems of Western Europe.
Lithuania is also planning an electricity grid link via Latvia and Estonia with Sweden.
The grid announcement came after broader discussions with Navickas' and Pawlak's opposite numbers from Estonia and Latvia about joint plans to build a new plant in Lithuania to replace Ignalina, which operates Chernobyl-style reactors. Navickas also said that that the four ministers had reaffirmed their support for the nuclear plant project.
Lithuania pledged to close the 1980s facility by 2010 during its membership talks with the European Union, which all four countries joined in 2004.
The new plant is meant to come on stream by 2015, although some experts have suggested that 2017-2020 is a more realistic target, and Lithuanian authorities have been pushing Brussels to allow an extension of Ignalina's lifespan.
There have been fears of power shortages if Ignalina, which provides around three-quarters of Lithuania's electricity, is closed too soon, making the country temporarily even more reliant on Russia for its energy.
Lithuania, which which like Latvia and Estonia broke free from the Soviet Union in 1991, is still tied to the Russian power grid and has been looking for ways to lessen its dependence on Moscow. Negotiations on the nuclear project were hampered last year by Poland's demands for the largest share of the new facility's output.
An initial feasibility study said the new plant could have a capacity of 800-1,600 megawatts, but experts have said output may be pushed up to 3,200-3,400 megawatts.
Poland's former conservative-nationalist government said it wanted no fewer than 1,200 megawatts and warned that it could put the power grid project on the back burner unless it got its required share.
Poland's demands scuppered plans to sign a formal deal on both the nuclear plant and the power grid in Vilnius last October.
The previous government lost office in a snap election last October, but it had not been clear whether Warsaw's new liberal administration would give ground. Navickas said that Poland had dropped its demand for no fewer than 1,200 megawatts. But Pawlak cautioned that no final decision had been made.
"We expressed our positive intentions in relation to the new nuclear power plant and stressed that we anticipate satisfactory decisions on power," Pawlak told reporters.
"But all decisions will be taken in the future," he added.
Source: Agence France Pressee
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