Lituanica

Lithuania needs a new atomic power station in order to prevent an economic crash in the next decade, as it faces an energy crunch after the planned shutdown of the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant (INPP) in late 2009, SEB Vilniaus Bankas analysts said.

As the BNS reported speculation about the closure of the second block of the Ignalina plant is still rife, but the chances that the country will continue to generate nuclear power after 2010 are diminishing, the analysts said in their latest Lithuanian Macroeconomic Review report.

“If we were left without nuclear energy, at the start of the next decade the Lithuanian energy system would be in a dramatic situation and would be fully dependent on Russia’s policies and its good will,” said Gitanas Nauseda, advisor to the president of SEB Vilniaus Bankas.

The analyst said that the planned power links with Poland and Sweden would not protect Lithuania from energy shortages.

“Based on realistic estimates, the construction of these energy connections may last until 2015. While demand for electricity worldwide and in neighboring countries is expected to increase, no supply surplus is predicted. Even in Russia, an absolute decrease in installed power plant capacity is anticipated in the coming years. Therefore, import does not seem to be a reliable source of electricity supply,” he said.

Experts point out that a nuclear power station would provide Lithuania with higher energy independence for at least 30 to 40 years.

SEB Vilniaus Bankas’ analysts said in the report that the main drawback of nuclear power plants is that they require huge initial investments.

The opinion poll which was conducted on November 8-17 reveled that majority of the Lithuania’s inhabitants belong to the Catholic Church, only third of them attending Church once a month and are suspicious of the other religions, especially of Islam.

As the BNS reported an opinion poll confirmed that most Lithuanian inhabitants are confessed Catholics and are suspiciously predisposed with regards to movements that are not considered religions of the world.

Results of a poll show that 78.8 percent of the respondents consider themselves faithful to a religion, another 16.4 percent don’t confess to any faith, and 1 percent claim to be atheist.

Among the respondents, 80.2 percent confessed Catholicism, however, only a third - 34 percent - go to church at least once a month.  Catholicism is also the most positively viewed religion, with 75 percent of the respondents valuing it positively, however, with regards to traditional religions, people see Islam in the most negative light, with 34.2 percent of the respondents expressing their views accordingly.  A total of 58.2 percent of the respondents claim that in their opinion, there is a lack of information on religious movements in Lithuania.

The poll shows that Lithuanians are most familiar with the Jehovah Witnesses and Tikejimo Zodis or Word of Faith followers with 52.9 and 51.8 of the polled being familiar with each, accordingly; one in three of the respondents were familiar with Baptists and the Krishna followers’ organizations. 59 % of the respondents said that the activity of religious movements should be strictly observed as it can be detrimental to society - activity of the movements receiving considerable complaints should be put to a halt and only the activities of traditional religious communities should be allowed.

The worst predisposition was expressed with regards to religious movements that are most spread in Lithuania - 37.6 % of the respondents negatively views the Jehovah Witnesses; 32.4 % feel the same way about Tikejimo Zodis religious movement. A tendency became evident, that respondents familiar with these movements tended to be more negatively predisposed to them.

A total of 61.2 % of the respondents said that they have been approached by, offered information, invited to a meeting among other proposals by the Jehovah Witnesses; 21.9 % by Tikejimo Zodis; 16.3 % by the Krishna Conscience Organization. A total of 56.4 % of the polled claimed to not having been in contact with the new religious movements over this time period.Among the respondents, 78 % said that they don’t participate and haven’t participated in any activities of religious movements or groups in the past; 69.6 percent said they wouldn’t consent to their child or grandchild participating in the activities of any religious movement.  Should a family have problems due to a child’s or a grandchild’s participation in activity of religious movements, 15.2 % said they would turn to psychotherapists; 12.6 % would turn to lawyers; 8.2 to the church and 42 % said they wouldn’t know whom to address with this issue.