Lithuania’s PM expects 4 countries to sign a deal on construction of new nuclear power plant

As the BNS agency reported Lithuania‘s PM Kirkilas believes that Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Poland will eventually sign an agreement on the construction of new nuclear power plant coming week.   “I think that currently we have no extraordinary disputable questions; this could be a declaration or any other document, we could sign it. As you know, we once tried to do that. Yet, the attempt was unsuccessful due to a political crisis in Poland.”

The PM also travelled to Riga today to take part in a meeting of Baltic Council of Ministers. “I think we will try to discuss that since the leaders of Latvia and Estonia will also attend the forum (the energy security conference in Vilnius on October 10-11). I cannot predict whether we will succeed. the impression is that Poland is ready to sign.”

Kirkilas also commented to BNS that “There are numerous questions to solve; the first is the assessment of environment. Much will depend on the choice of reactor as the period of reactor construction required by individual companies varies greatly, with the difference being almost a year. Our goal is the year 2015, and the actual factors are another question,” Kirkilas said commenting on expert conclusions that the new nuclear power plant would not be built in 2015.

The prime ministers of three Baltic countries and Poland planned to sign a declaration on the construction of new nuclear power plant early in July. However, Polish government leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski then called off his scheduled visit to Vilnius.

Lithuanian citizens took a Constitution exam

As the BNS reported a first exam on Constitution of Lithuania took place on Friday.

According to preliminary information, the exam was taken by 772 residents including 154 politicians, said the organizer of the test, the Lithuanian Journalists’ Union.

The exam was held to mark 15 years of the Lithuanian Constitution.

Persons with legal education were not allowed to take the test.

One resident and one politician who performed best in the first stage will proceed to the second stage of the exam, which is scheduled for October 20.

Five countries to sign in Vilnius agreements on alternative oil pipeline

Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Georgia plan to sign an agreement on joint work to implement an Odessa-Brody-Plock-Gdansk oil pipeline project in Vilnius during the Vilnius Energy Security Conference on Oct. 10-11.  The Pipeline should would provide an alternative to Russian oil supplies for the countries concerned. As Neringa Pazusiene, a department director at the Lithuanian Economy Ministry, told BNS “This will be the last step to be taken in order to get the project started. The ministerial meeting in Tbilisi served as a catalyst for reaching agreement,” she said.

Sarmatia was founded by Poland‘s PERN and Ukraine’s Ukrtransnafta.

As the BNS writes Sarmatia’s shareholders gave the go-ahead for increasing the company’s authorized share capital to 12 million zlotys (3.2 mln) from 2 million zlotys to bring in Azerbaijan’s Socar, Georgia’s GOGC and Lithuania’s Klaipedos Nafta (Klaipeda Oil) in the mid of July of 2007.

The state-run oil product terminal operator, Klaipedos Nafta, expects to have 1 percent of the shares in Sarmatia.The Odessa-Brody-Plock-Gdansk pipeline is planned to be the first oil pipeline to link the Caspian and Black Sea regions to the.

Baltic Sea region and to become a new oil transit route to Europe.

Ukrainian elections – ‘so far, so good’ an official Lithuanian reaction

As the Lithuanian Foreign Minister Petras Vaitiekunas declared the results of the Ukrainian parliamentary elections, which preliminarily handed a close victory to pro-Western parties, is an important step towards solution of the political crisis. He told to the BNS that “I am glad to see Ukraine taking an important step to the solution of the political crisis in the country. It sends a strong signal not only to the Ukrainian society but also to other countries in the region and entire Europe,” he said on the Monday morning.

As the BNS reported Mr Vaitekunas hopes that a coalition government is now expected after the democratic elections to proceed with the reforms and the country’s Euro-Atlantic integration.