Poland, Lithuanian hold talks on energy amid Russian gas row
Warsaw - Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk met with his Lithuanian counterpart on Wednesday for talks on energy cooperation amid a gas dispute that saw Russia cut off gas through Ukraine.
Tusk and Lithuanian Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius discussed an energy bridge that would link Lithuania with Poland, and therefore the West. Lithuania is currently reliant on Moscow for its electricity.
The agenda included building a new nuclear plant at Ignalina to replace a Soviet-era facility that Lithuania agreed to shut down when it joined the European Union.
"Poland is determined that this project is successful," Tusk said of the project co-financed by Poland, Estonia and Latvia. "But a successful project is a power plant in Ignalina that produces so much electricity that part of it would be Poland's."
Tusk said the project would pay off if Poland receives a third of the 3,000 megawatts the plant would produce. He said Warsaw would invest some 800 million euros in the plant, but needs Lithuania's guarantee that the electricity would also flow to Poland. (dpa)