Lithuania’s Foreign Minister urges EU to keep eye on Belarus’ constructing NPP

On 4 October in Brussels, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkevičius called on the European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini to draw more attention of the EU to the construction of the unsafe NPP in Belarus’ Astravets and presented existing violations, the lack of transparency and cooperation with Belarus.

“We hope that all EU officials unfailingly touch on the issue when talking to the representatives of Belarus,” Linkevičius told journalists.

According to the diplomat, he met with Mogherini’s full support and understanding.

Lithuania’s Foreign Minister thanked the High Representative for paying attention to the Eastern neighbours in the context of the current challenges facing Europe, but also stressed the need for the European Union to be more active.

Lithuania is the main critic of the idea of the Belarusian nuclear power plant, which is only 20 km from the border and 50 km from Vilnius. Minsk rejects Lithuania’s claims, arguing that nuclear power plants will have high safety standards. Vilnius asked Brussels for involvement of the European Union in the matter.

On 8 April 2016, there was a collapse of the structural frame of the would-be nuclear service building at Astravets NPP, of which Belsat.eu was informed in early May.

At first, the authorities denied our report saying that there had not been any incidents at the construction site. State-run mass media remained silent as well. After the publication Lithuania summoned Belarus’ ambassador and handed him a diplomatic note demanding explanation over the incident.

As reported earlier, during installation the enclosure of the future reactor fell from the height of 2 – 4 meters at the construction site of the Belarusian NPP in Astravets.

belsat.eu

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