Lietuva in brief - 2010-12-02

  • 2010-12-01

Lithuania “has questions” about the report on the environmental impact assessment (EIA) of the future nuclear power plants in Belarus, reports ELTA. This was stated by Director of the Department for the Prevention of Pollution of the Ministry of Environment of Lithuania Vitalijus Auglis on Nov. 26. According to him, Lithuania will not approve the construction of the nuclear power plant until Belarus gives official responses to the requests from the Lithuanian side, the Belarusian telegraf.by reports. It is still unclear for Lithuania why they want to build the plant in Astravets, 50 kilometers away from Vilnius, the Lithuanian official said. However, the head of the National Commission on Radiological Protection at the Council of Ministers, Yakov Kenigsberg, said in Minsk on Nov. 24 that Lithuania had withdrawn all of the earlier objections to the EIA, submitted by Belarus. The report on the security of the Belarusian nuclear power plant is planned to be developed only after the final choice of the investor.

On Nov. 26, Statistics Lithuania said that Lithuania’s consumer confidence index was at minus 26 in November, the same as in October, reports ELTA. In October, consumers were more optimistic about personal as well as general economic conditions for the next 12 months, however, the number of those hoping to save some money in the next 12 months has dropped. According to the Department of Statistics, in November, 4 percent of the respondents stated that their household financial situation has improved over the year, 57 percent claimed that the situation has worsened and 38 percent were convinced that the situation remained unchanged. Evaluating the country’s economic situation, 67 percent of the residents indicated that the economic situation has deteriorated over the past year, 7 percent - that the situation has improved, 25 percent - that the situation remained stable (in October, 70, 6 and 23 percent respectively).