European Parliament's report on Ignalina plant decommissioning to be major factor in considering increased EU funding

"I think that the conclusion that will be prepared by the members of the (European Parliament's) Committee on Budgetary Control, who are visiting Lithuania, will be among the key documents while making a decision on the closure funding. That conclusion will have a key impact," Balčytis told BNS.

"It is very important for the European Parliament, which makes decisions on funding allocations, to receive information from the MEPs who have seen this giant facility for themselves. This giant facility poses a lot of problems not only in financial terms but also in safety," he said.

Balčytis predicts that a decision on additional funding might be taken during Lithuania's EU presidency in the second half of 2013.

The amount of EU funding for Ignalina plant closure in 2014 through 2020 is currently projected at 230 million euros, the MEP says.

The European Commission earlier proposed to provide 210 million euros for this purpose in the next budget period starting in 2014. Lithuania estimates that it needs 870 million euros in total and is asking for 770 million euros in EU funds, with the remaining 100 million euros to be contributed by the country itself.

Žilvinas Jurkšus, CEO of the plant, says that only half of around 1.5 billion euros provided by the EU for the plant's closure has been spent so far.

Eight members of the European Parliament met with INPP management and representatives of Nukem, a Russian-owned company that is carrying out the plant's key decommissioning projects, and were shown around the site on Wednesday. The delegation will complete its visit to Lithuania on Thursday.

In line with its EU accession agreement, Lithuania permanently shut down Ignalina plant on the last day of 2009.

A total of 1.589 billion euros was allocated for the nuclear power plant's decommissioning in 1999 to 2011, with 12 percent contributed by Lithuania and the rest by the EU.