Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-06-12-Speech-3-232"
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"en.20020612.5.3-232"2
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"Mr President, as vice-chairman of the Lithuania delegation I would like to concentrate on that country and in this connection on the Ignalina nuclear power plant. I expressly welcome the fact that we heard officially from that country at the beginning of the week, from Prime Minister Brazauskas, that Lithuania also intends to shut down the plant’s second reactor for good in 2009. That was made possible because the European Union has entered into obligations for the period from 2004 to 2006 totalling approximately EUR 245 million. But I say, too, that we shall also have to assist this country after 2006 with the entire decommissioning of the nuclear power plant. Of course I have my doubts as to whether the Union will have to pay all of the EUR 2.4 billion that Lithuania wants for that, spread over 20 years, because every country that operates a nuclear power plant in the normal way has to make provision for the time after it is closed.
One thing I find interesting in this connection is that with respect to Ignalina we are for the first time rightly demanding something of a candidate country that cannot be found in the acquis communautaire because – lamentably – we have as yet no Community acquis concerning the safety of nuclear power plants. I consider that really to be a political scandal and I hope we will arrive at a common standard for that for the future. I hear that some members of the Council, the usual suspects, are already objecting to the closure of the plant and the reasons why they must close it being so expressly included in the accession treaty for Lithuania because they are afraid that could indirectly create an acquis.
I hope that Commissioner De Palacio will be successful in pushing through her announced package of measures laying down for the first time common standards for the safety of nuclear installations under Euratom auspices. If we want to continue with nuclear energy, that can only be the highest standard technically possible, but I really want to use this as an opportunity to say one thing: we must not be unreasonable in asking from the candidate countries what we do not ask of ourselves. In the present case we are right to ask that, but then we within the Union must take the appropriate steps ourselves when it comes to safety standards for nuclear installations."@en1
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