"The Cabinet has a working group at the moment which is carrying out the analysis and, I think, will present to Latvia a vision on Lithuania's energy strategy as early as late April," Butkevičius said at a joint press conference with Latvian Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis.
In a press release published later on Thursday, Butkevičius said that the "Visaginas NPP project could be developed only as a regional one."
The Latvian prime minister said he would wait for the Lithuanian position, emphasizing that Riga's earlier stance to support the N-plant plans hadn't changed. Dombrovskis restated that a few memorandums had been signed on the governmental level about the new nuclear facility.
"The Latvian side has not changed its position and sticks to what has already been said. It is crucial now to understand the position of the Lithuanian government," he said.
Dombrovskis stated that the issue would soon be discussed between Lithuania and Latvia on the ministerial level.
The Social Democrats, Butkevičius's party, have been critical of the project authored by the previous rightist government.
In an advisory referendum held last October, voters overwhelmingly rejected nuclear energy. 34.09 percent voted in favor of constructing a nuclear power plant, and 62.69 percent voted against. Voter turnout was 52.58 percent.
The last time the Baltic prime ministers signed a memorandum on the construction of a nuclear power plant was on September 20. Then the heads of the Lithuanian, Latvian, and Estonian governments agreed to set up an intergovernmental working group to coordinate issues important for the project on the government level.
In the statement, the prime ministers urged energy companies Visaginas Nuclear Power Plant, Eesti Energia, Latvenergo, and Hitachi "to finalize talks on unresolved issues and to establish a project enterprise taking into account the results of the national referendum in Lithuania."
