Lithuania should join the International Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant (INPP) Decommissioning Support Fund (Ignalina IDSF) as a new member by mid-2007 under the draft amendment to the fund's regulations submitted to the Assembly of Contributors to Ignalina IDSF held in London in December.
"It means that Lithuania will be able to get more information and will have a greater say since it would have a vote," Arturas Dainius, the Economy Ministry Secretary, told BNS.
The agenda of the Assembly also included the approval of the fund's program of activities by June 2007.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the fund's administrator, confirmed the preparatory projects on the dismantling of the first unit and development of national energy sector, the implementation of which would be bound to the content of Lithuania's energy strategy and the timing of its approval.
The European Commission transferred 528 million euros to Ignalina IDSF by Oct 31. Contracts worth 504 million euros have already been concluded.
The first unit of INPP, which is considered unsafe by the West, was shut down on Dec. 31, 2004, in line with Lithuania's pre-accession commitments to the European Union. The second and the last unit would be closed in December 2009.