During a meeting of the European Nuclear Forum in Bratislava, Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico asked European Commissioner for Energy Günther Oettinger to re-evaluate and increase the financial contribution of the European Union to the cost of decommissioning the two blocks of the V1 nuclear power plant in Jaslovské Bohunice, the TASR newswire reported.
Speaking after holding talks with European Commission President José Manuel Barroso in Brussels in late April, Fico said that “the European Union is planning to provide over €100 million to Slovakia, but our experts have proved that more than €400 million will be needed”.
“The 2014-2020 financial perspective envisages a specific sum to help Slovakia decommission these two blocks,” said Fico, as quoted by TASR, adding that this sum is far from sufficient to meet the demands of this “highly complicated process”.
Fico proposed opening a public discussion on the issue and asked the European Commission to re-assess the amount it had allocated, otherwise the country “cannot provide guarantees that this process will take place”.
The prime minister went on to say that, based on an agreement with the EU, Slovakia had to decommission two “sound and safe” nuclear blocks. He added that production of electricity at both facilities had been halted just after their modernisation. At that time, Fico said, they produced very cheap electricity and would certainly have passed stress tests even today.
Source: TASR
Compiled by Radka Minarechová from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
