Lithuania has stepped up pressure on the European Commission by deciding to hold a referendum on whether to extend the lifespan of the Ignalina nuclear power plant, despite having agreed - as a condition of entry into the EU - to shut the station down at the end of 2009. On Monday (14 July), 88 out of 141 Lithuanian parliamentarians supported a call for a non-binding plebiscite on the issue, while five MPs were against and eleven abstained. The referendum is due on 12 October, the same day as the general parliamentary elections. The signing of Lithuania's EU accession treaty, which lays out a timetable for closure of Ignalina "Our motive is the difficult situation facing Lithuania," Vytautas Bogusis, who tabled the referendum idea, told AFP. He added that the situation after Ignalina is closed was likely to be "catastrophic" as electricity prices would "rise fourfold". The chair of the parliament economic committee, Birute Vesaite, told Reuters that the country "should not remain silent and wait until the others take [its] electricity market share".
Lithuania has stepped up pressure on the European Commission by deciding to hold a referendum on whether to extend the lifespan of the Ignalina nuclear power plant, despite having agreed - as a condition of entry into the EU - to shut the station down at the end of 2009.
On Monday (14 July), 88 out of 141 Lithuanian parliamentarians supported a call for a non-binding plebiscite on the issue, while five MPs were against and eleven abstained. The referendum is due on 12 October, the same day as the general parliamentary elections.
The signing of Lithuania's EU accession treaty, which lays out a timetable for closure of Ignalina
"Our motive is the difficult situation facing Lithuania," Vytautas Bogusis, who tabled the referendum idea, told AFP. He added that the situation after Ignalina is closed was likely to be "catastrophic" as electricity prices would "rise fourfold".
The chair of the parliament economic committee, Birute Vesaite, told Reuters that the country "should not remain silent and wait until the others take [its] electricity market share".
So now time is running out. Because they put all their repalcement eggs in one basket! In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
