President of the European Commission pledged support to ensure energy security for Lithuania
Updated 2008-09-18
In his Brussels meeting with President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso, Prime Minister Gediminas Kirkilas continued political consultations on energy security issues in the European Union and the Baltic Region.
According to Kirkilas, changing geopolitical situation requires to assess challenges to energy security. The Prime Minister said that integration of all the EU member states, the Baltic States included, into the EU common energy grid, is in Lithuania’s interest.
The Prime Minister underlined that energy security for Lithuania and the entire region highly depends on functioning of the Ignalina NPP, therefore rise of energy generation costs and the absence of additional import possibilities following the closure of the INPP are going to have a negative impact on the competitiveness and growth prospects of Lithuania’s economy.
According to Kirkilas, power capacity generation following the closure of INPP will become greatly dependent on higher gas imports from a single supplier. Moreover, power generation based on oil and gas instead of nuclear fuel is going to markedly increase environmental pollution. And this, to the Prime Minister’s opinion, is not acceptable neither to Lithuania nor the entire EU.
Prime Minister believes that it is essential to seek solidarity among the EU member states in search for the solutions to the INPP issue by continuing political consultations and aiming at swifter integration of the Baltic Region into the EU electricity and gas market.
The President of the European Commission agreed that consultations should be continued in search for urgent solutions. He underlined that the European Commission is ready not only to continue consultations but also to propose specific actions under its authority. José Manuel Barroso offered drafting a joint action plan on connecting the Baltic Region to the EU energy grid, which would have a separate action plan for the European Commission and one for Lithuania, aiming to assume all the necessary measures to strengthen Lithuania’s energy security at its maximum by the end 2009. Barroso also agreed to propose these ideas for the European Council meetings to be held in October and December.
Kirkilas pointed out that the Lithuanian Government has ideas on how to face the rising challenges: first, to expeditiously construct power links to Sweden and Poland, second, to connect the Lithuanian and Polish gas sectors by the construction of the liquefied gas terminal, third, to develop a project for the new nuclear power plant, and fourth, to raise energy consumption efficiency and the share of renewables in the energy mix.
The meeting has also discussed the Russia-Georgia conflict. According to the Prime Minister, the world needs to unite its efforts to rebuild the devastated Georgia. Furthermore, transatlantic prospects for George should be outlined more clearly. Kirkilas stressed that the EU-Russia relations prospects must be seriously discussed on the basis of principles of the international law and European values.
