Prime Minister: Lithuania could hold nuclear plant referendum in two years

"During the course of the Visaginas nuclear power project development and further negotiations, and when we know all the details of the project, people could be asked, in one or another way, to give their opinion. That would be in a year and a half to two years' time. I don't see any problem about that," Kubilius told the Žinių Radijas station.

"But we must ask clear questions and know what the project looks like," he said.

The prime minister called the first group's failure to collect a sufficient number of signatures for a nuclear power plant referendum "a big blow to populism."

"I think that the fact that Linas Balsys (the Green Policy Institute president) failed to collect the signatures despite all that noisy campaign and propaganda shows that people in Lithuania have quite a lot of common sense and responsibility. I think that quite a big blow has been dealt to that populism," he said.

The Central Electoral Commission has confirmed that the group failed to submit the signatures for an advisory referendum to be held simultaneously with October's general elections. The deadline was on Wednesday.

The group of referendum initiators, registered in March and made up of members of the Lithuanian Green Policy Institute and the Lithuanian Green Movement, had three months to collect at least 300,000 signatures and submit them to the commission on Wednesday.

Another group is initiating a binding referendum on the nuclear power plant construction. They have until 17 July to submit the required number of signatures.

The Seimas has recently given the green light to the Visaginas project, but final investment decisions are expected to be taken in 2015.