Vitalijus Auglys, the director of the ministry's Pollution Prevention Department, tells BNS he thinks that Belarus will most probably try to prove to Lithuania that Astravyets is a suitable site for the project.
"Belarus is now showing signs that they want to establish a dialogue with Lithuania. There are important issues for them regarding the nuclear power plant project, the Astravyets site. I think that they want to prove to Lithuania that this is the only choice," he said.
The Belarusian news agency Belta reported last week that Lithuania and Belarus were planning to hold consultations on the Astravyets project. However, Auglys told BNS on Monday that such consultations would not be held so soon.
"I saw the (news) report, but I've nothing to comment on. Officially, we have no additional information from them. Knowing that the Espoo Convention findings were favorable to us, they have to take everything into consideration. We'll see what happens. We haven't received the latest information from them. We can't even start consultations with them, because we must hold public discussions" Auglys told BNS.
Belarusian Deputy Energy Minister Mikhail Mikhadyuk said last week that Belarus and Lithuania had agreed to launch consultations on the nuclear power plant project in May.
The Espoo Convention Implementation Committee has instructed Belarus to continue environmental impact assessment procedures based on the Espoo Convention requirements in order to give answers to all the questions raised by Lithuania and take into consideration all comments.
Lithuania has repeatedly criticized Belarus for its failure to ensure safety in the development of the Astravyets NPP project, which is planned to be built 50 kilometers from Vilnius.
