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BARROSO SUPPORTS THE PRESIDENT CONCERNING SAFETY REQUIREMENTS FOR NEW NPPs

President of the European Commission, Jose Manual Barroso, confirmed in a letter to President Dalia Grybauskaitė that the European Commission took into account suggestions made by President Grybauskaitė, urging the European Union to take immediately all possible actions to ensure safety of all nuclear power plants operating or planned in its neighborhood.

Nuclear power plants planned to be constructed in the Lithuanian neighborhood may pose a threat to security of our country and Lithuania and the EU must therefore make sure that the plants comply with the highest safety standards, the President of Lithuania underlined in a letter of 30 May to the President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, and the President of the European Commission, Jose Manual Barroso.

In the beginning of August, EC President Barroso informed the President of Lithuania that the European Commission, taking account of the President's calls, delivered special questionnaires to Russia and Belarus to find out whether European safety standards would be applied to nuclear power plants planned to be built in the Kaliningrad region and in Astraviec, Belarus.

The European Commission also asked Belarus to provide environmental impact assessments of the Astraviec nuclear power plant, to be conducted in accordance with the Espoo Convention and other international standards, and suggested holding joint consultations.

In response to the Lithuanian President's initiative, the European Commissioner for Energy, Günther Oettinger, agreed with representatives of Russia and Belarus on 23 June that these two countries would perform the so-called stress tests for the existing and planned nuclear power plants in accordance with the EU methodology.

On 30 May, President Dalia Grybauskaitė sent a letter to the President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, and the President of the European Commission, Jose Manual Barroso, urging them to strengthen the EU's internal integration in the energy sector and to make all possible steps to ensure safety of nuclear facilities in the EU and its neighborhood.

The issue of the need to ensure safety of nuclear power plants in the EU neighborhood was also raised by European leaders in the EU-Russia Summit on 9-10 June 2011 in Nizhny Novgorod.

Press Service of the President