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Comprehensive responses to Lithuania’s questions about Belarusian nuclear station

MINSK, 22 March (BelTA) – Belarus has given exhaustive answers to Lithuania’s questions about the construction of the nuclear power plant, Yelena Penyaz, Head of the Information and Public Relations Office, Press Secretary of the Belarusian Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Ministry, told BelTA.

According to the source, in Geneva the Implementation Committee for the Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context (Espoo Convention) investigated Lithuania’s complaint stating Belarus has failed to observe the convention while planning the nuclear station project.

The Belarusian and Lithuanian sides made reports and gave answers to questions asked by members of the Committee. The Belarusian side gave exhaustive answers to all questions, with official documents that confirm Belarus’ compliance with the Convention provided.

The Belarusian side also presented facts that testify that Lithuania deliberately avoids a dialogue about these matters. The Lithuanian delegation failed to provide coherent answers as to why Lithuania fails to respond to Belarus’ proposals to sign a bilateral agreement on observing the Espoo Convention, a bilateral agreement on timely notification about nuclear accidents, information sharing and cooperation in nuclear security and radiation protection, on holding bilateral consultations to discuss the construction of the Belarusian and Visaginas nuclear power plants. The Lithuanian delegation failed to provide answers as to why Belarusian representatives had not been allowed to participate in the discussion about the Belarusian nuclear station project in Lithuania. Yelena Penyaz said the Lithuanian side once again resorts to deliberate distortion of reality and misinforms the international community.

The Belarusian delegation pointed out that had Lithuania been willing, the existing issues would have been addressed at the bilateral level as the practice of discussing the report on environmental impact of the Belarusian nuclear station with Austria, Latvia, Poland and Ukraine demonstrates.

The information presented by the Belarusian side will be taken into account as the Committee will prepare recommendations for both sides by September 2012.

The Belarusian side believes that the information published by the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry after the Geneva session is an attempt to pressure members of the Implementation Committee for the Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context. “We recommend that the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry should ascertain the real situation around the Belarus-EU dialogue about the Belarusian nuclear power plant instead of publishing information, which is far from reality,” said Yelena Penyaz.

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