President in the Media

Bloomberg: Lithuania to Fund Nuclear Plant via Budget, State Energy Company

By James Neuger and Milda Seputyte - Jun 27, 2011

Lithuania will finance the government's share in a planned nuclear power plant through the budget and state energy company VAE, President Dalia Grybauskaite said.

"It will be done not only by the state budget but by the state energy company," Grybauskaite said in an interview in Brussels June 22 before the EU summit. "Latvian, Estonian and Polish companies are still pledging and would like to participate in the project."

Lithuania, together with its two Baltic neighbors and Poland, plans to build a nuclear plant in Visaginas by 2020 to diversify the region's energy resources after the closure of the Soviet-era Ignalina atomic facility at the end of 2009. Pittsburgh, PA-based Westinghouse Electric Corp. and Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy Ltd. are competing to supply equipment and acquire a controlling stake in the plant.

Lithuania is "satisfied" to have received the two bids this month, Grybauskaite said. It's too early to say how attractive the proposals are as talks are continuing, he added.

A strategic investor may be offered as much as 51 percent in the project, while the remainder would be split between Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Poland, the government has said. The plant may cost 5 billion euros ($7 billion), according to official estimates.