Vitalijus Auglys, director of the ministry's Pollution Prevention Department, spoke to BNS in comment to the report published by Belarus' Belta news agency about alleged plans to end the related consultations with Lithuania in the coming months.
"We have filed a plea against Belarus for improper application of the Espoo Convention (Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context), as Lithuania was not consulted in a proper manner (about the Astravyets NPP project). The Espoo Committee has already discussed the case. Recommendations should be made soon. As far as we understand, the initial recommendations will not be favorable. Belarus has a feeling about the content of the recommendations and is probably trying to make contact or, in part, bluff," Auglys told BNS.
"For now, we do not see the Belarusian side trying to manage the documentation in a way that we would find satisfactory. Furthermore, we so far have no official invitations for consultations," he said.
In comment of the statement by Belarusian State Environmental Project Expert Assessment Department Alexander Andreyev about expected closure of the consultations with Lithuania within two months, Auglys said “the scenario is highly optimistic."
"Knowing that the Belarusian side was not so optimistic about its neighbor for years, it seems very strange to end everything in two months," the Lithuanian official told BNS.
Lithuania has repeatedly criticized Belarus for failure to ensure security in its Astravyets NPP project, which is to be situated merely 50 kilometers from the Lithuanian capital Vilnius.
According to the Espoo Convention, a priority project development site can only be established after completion of the process of assessment of environmental effect, i.e., after answering all questions from countries that may feel the effects, informing their societies about the project and bilateral consultations.
