Baltic States – CIS, Belarus, Energy, Legislation, Lithuania, Nuclear power plant

Every possible international means, international forums and bilateral contacts have been used and will be used to achieve this goal. Taking part in the process of environmental impact assessment under the Espoo Convention, Lithuanian Foreign Ministry raised questions about unreasonable selection of the plant's construction site and other issues of possible impact on Lithuania. Having received and reviewed the initial document on Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) submitted by Belarus, Lithuanian institutions did not find essential information about possible impact of the project on Lithuania, as well as the construction site selection criteria. Therefore, Lithuania posed Belarus many additional questions. The answers have not yet been received. Although Belarus claims about alleged public hearings of the project in Lithuania, the lack of necessary information about the project makes Lithuania maintain the position that public hearings have not been held. Therefore, Lithuania has consistently required completing the EIA document with information important for Lithuania and organizing public hearings and bilateral consultations afterwards.

Lithuanian Foreign Ministry does not consider the EIA process accomplished. The Foreign Ministry has repeatedly sent notes to Belarus and to the secretariat of the Espoo Convention informing about the fact that Lithuania is still not satisfied with the received information. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has consistently focused and continues to focus international community's attention on the development of the nuclear energy project that does not meet international safety standards in Belarus. At the initiative of Lithuania, this issue was included in the EU nuclear safety agenda and the position of the European Commission. At the initiative of Lithuanian Foreign Ministry, regular consultations were held with the heads and experts of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to ensure the safety of Lithuanian nuclear power projects, as well as to pay IAEA attention to construction projects adjacent to Lithuania, that do not meet the requirements of international conventions.

In June 2010, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs invited Secretary General of IAEA, Yukiya Amano to Lithuania and organized a regional conference on nuclear safety issues. In early 2011, two high level meetings with the leaders of the IAEA were held.

A conference to review the Convention on Nuclear Safety will be held in April, and Lithuania will in most rigorous way raise issues of Belarus and Kaliningrad nuclear energy projects' compliance with international safety requirements.

MFA will continue to use all possible means to ensure the safety of nuclear projects, developed in Lithuania's neighborhood, and will strive to minimize their impact on Lithuanian society.