SLOVAKIA has to negotiate with EU member states to gain support for its plan to decommission Jaslovské Bohunice's older nuclear reactors, said Ján Figel, Slovakia’s European commissioner.
Last year the European Commission proposed a sum of €237 million (Sk9.2 billion) over the 2007-13 period to decommission the nuclear plant. Slovak officials, however, think that that sum is too little and want it increased, the TASR news agency reported.
EU members have not yet agreed on the new financial programme. Some of them want to save and cut expenditures.
"The Slovak government should negotiate with member states very specifically and intensively because, at this stage, member states are entitled to decide on the financial programme," said Figel.
He thinks that Slovakia is entitled to further support for the decommissioning of Bohunice, which was part of its EU accession agreement. Under the agreement, Slovakia will decommission one reactor of the V1 block by the end of 2006 and the second by the end of 2008.
Economy Minister Pavol Rusko, citing safety reasons, has been trying for months to get the EU to agree to simultaneous decommissioning of the plant's two reactors, without changing the accession agreement.
He is scheduled to discuss the issue with European Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs today.
Compiled by Martina Jurinová from press reports
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