EU agrees on Ignalina funding

Lithuania received a long-awaited financial commitment on June 11 from the European Union to help fund the closure of the Ignalina nuclear power plant by 2009.

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Antanas Valionis announced at a meeting with EU officials in Luxembourg that the government would close both of the Soviet-built reactors in the time frame the EU had requested - the first reactor by 2005 and the second by 2009.

EU officials, in turn, pledged financial support.

"The European Union is, in solidarity with Lithuania, ready to provide adequate assistance to the decommissioning effort also after Lithuania's accession to the Euro-pean Union," an EU statement read.

Lithuania and the EU have been at loggerheads throughout accession negotiations over closure of the Soviet-built plant, which was widely seen as Lithuania's biggest obstacle to membership.

The closure will cost an estimated $2.4 billion. EU officials said negotiations with Lithuania would continue to determine how much EU money would be provided.

The power plant, which the EU considers unsafe, provide about 70 percent of Lithuania's electricity.

Valionis was in Luxembourg as part of ongoing talks with the EU.

He said the first reactor was scheduled to be closed by 2005 and the second by 2009.

The Lithuanian government had previously said the second reactor could not possibly be closed before 2015 without financial backing from the EU.

"We will now be able to focus on other important matters like agricultural and budgetary stipulations," said Valionis.

With the Ignalina closure seemingly solved, EU Commissioner Guenter Verheugen said during the meetings that Lithuania was "now a front runner" to join the EU by 2004.