Lithuania’s State Defense Council calls to ensure boycott of Astravyets power ASAP

VILNIUS – Lithuania’s State Defense Council ruled on Monday that Lithuania should reach as soon as possible an agreement with the other Baltic countries on an effective boycott of electricity from Belarus' Astravyets nuclear power plant and should also speed up the implementation of a project on the synchronization of the country’s electricity grids with those of continental Europe and should ramp up domestic power generation.

According to Jaroslav Neverovic, an advisor to Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda, the State Defense Council remains focused on the issue of imports of electricity from Astravyets nuclear facility and unsafe energy projects.

“The Council made decisions. The first decision says that it is necessary to reach as soon as possible an agreement on a trilateral methodology of the three Baltic countries that would prevent trade in Belarusian electricity in the markets of the Baltic countries. The second decision calls for a speedier implementation of synchronization and for preparations for an isolated operation test of the Baltic electricity systems that should be conducted as early as in 2023,” he said at a news conference after the Council’s meeting.

The third decision concerned the proposals of the Lithuanian government to the European Commission that was called by the EU Council last December to bring forward proposals pertaining to the access to the EU electricity market for unsafe electricity from third countries.

“As regards the decision of the EU Council, we plan to bring forward proposals to the Commission that will prove that our methodology will effectively bar access to our markets for electricity from unsafe power plants operating very close to the European Union…,” Energy Minister Dainius Kreivys told the reporters.

He reminded that negotiators from the three Baltic countries and the European Commission should this week discuss the new methodology put forward by Lithuania.

“The methodology has already been sent to our neighbors and a BEMIP meeting of the European Commission, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia will be convened this week. We hope to make progress in this area,” the minister added.

Lithuania says that the methodology that was drafted by the three Baltic countries last year and unilaterally approved by Latvia and Estonia fails to bar market access for Belarusian electricity. Hence Lithuania has not approved the methodology and proposed to adopt a new one instead.