Energy, Investments, Lithuania, Nuclear power plant

The company withdrew its proposal and it is not known yet who will be strategic investor, informs LETA/ELTA.

The negotiations on the strategic investor will continue until the end of this year.

The nuclear power plant should start operating in 2018-2020.

Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius regrets that South Korean Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) that submitted a financially attractive proposal, withdrew its participation in the tender for finding a strategic investor in Visaginas Nuclear Power Plant, and says that the selection of the strategic partner will be settled by negotiation.

"It is regrettable that the South Korean KEPCO company, that proposed a financially attractive proposal, decided to withdraw from the tender for reasons unknown to us. Under the Law on Concessions, such end of the tender opens opportunities for direct negotiations will all possible investors under the same conditions," the prime minister says. The head of the Government assured that Lithuania will continue implementing all the projects that are of strategic importance to Lithuania and the common EU energy policy for the construction of the regional nuclear power plant and connections with Poland and Sweden. Especially given that after the meeting with Polish, Latvian, Estonian and Lithuanian energy ministers on Thursday, EC Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger confirmed that the European Commission and all four countries supported the construction of regional nuclear power plant and electricity bridges, and that the major long-term goal was a synchronized connection of the Baltic States to the European electricity grid.