SOFIA, Oct 2 (Reuters) - Bulgaria is close to choosing a winner between Belgian energy firm Electrabel and Germany's RWE AG to make a strategic investment in a planned 4 billion euro ($5.6 billion) nuclear plant, Bulgarian utility NEK said on Thursday.
In August, state-owned NEK asked RWE and Electrabel, owned by France's GDF Suez, to improve their offers for a 49 percent stake in the plant it is building to restore Bulgaria's position as a leading power exporter in southeastern Europe.
Macedonia has five more days to decide how it will deal with the energy crisis that is threatening the region. Experts believe that one of the more favourable options would be to strike a deal with Bulgaria on power supply through subventions from the new nuclear plant that is being constructed in Belene. The documents that Nova Makedonija has come across indicate that the financial construction of the Belene project -- which commenced on 3 September -- is drawing to a close and that the last package of the technical project should be approved by 15 September at the latest. This means that, unless an agreement is reached on our participation in the Belene project in the remaining few days, Macedonia will depend on the import of expensive electricity for decades, unless it gets involved in other serious energy investments. Generally speaking, this will have a negative effect on the population's standard of living because the price of every product is related to the price of the basic energy source -- electricity.
On September 9 Bulgarian and international environmental organisations, including the local coalition BeleNE (No to Belene nuclear power plant) and Greenpeace, sent a letter to the European Union (EU) Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes asking her to investigate the tender procedures for subcontractors in the construction of Bulgaria’s Belene nuclear power plant.
Sofia. National movement Ecoglasnost has sent a letter of request to the European Commissioner for Energy Andris Piebalgs, whereby it insisted that Commissioner Piebalgs should take a stance on the NPP Belene issue.
The groundbreaking ceremony for the official start of construction on the second Bulgarian Belene nuclear power plant is scheduled for September 3. Bulgaria’s Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev will turn the first sod, according to the Bulgarian Socialist Party’s press centre in the northern city of Pleven, as quoted by Bulgarian-language daily Dnevnik.
The 20th edition of the international bicycle procession ‘Ecotopia' starts from Bulgaria on July 5 and will end in Turkey 5 weeks later, the organizers from 'Veloevolutsia' (Bikevolution) Association ‘, part of EYFA (European Youth For Action).
The welcoming of the guests and the official opening of the bicycle procession will occur tonight in front of the National Palace of Culture (NDK) in Sofia with an action in support of the steady development of Bulgaria, during which the citizen could inform themselves about the most actual environmental problems of Bulgaria.
Two safety scares in June at nuclear plants in Slovenia and the Czech Republic have led to renewed calls for Europe to abandon nuclear power. But with energy prices soaring, the nuclear sector is actually on the rise.
The EU already has the highest number of nuclear plants in the world and Bulgaria is leading those member states determined to increase their nuclear dependence.
There are delays in the projects for the Nuclear Power Plant "Belene" and the power plants in the "Maritsa-East" basin, according to Bulgaria's Minister of Economy and Energy, Petar Dimitrov.
Dimitrov made the above admissions just before the meeting of the National Security Council convened by Bulgaria's President Georgi Parvanov Tuesday to discuss the Bulgaria's participation in major energy projects and their effect on the country's security.
For two years one of the main world federations for environment protection “Friends of the Earth” leads a campaign for higher responsibility of the banks when funding infrastructural projects.
The French branch of this non-governmental organisation is now criticizing strongly the decision of the French bank BNP Paribas to organize the financing of the project for nuclear energy in Belene, Bulgaria, writes the French newspaper “Mond”, cited by BTA.
German energy giant RWE is considering withdrawal from the race to buy 49 per cent in the company that will build Bulgaria´s second nuclear power plant at Belene, German newspaper Die Welt reported on April 20.
The newspaper quoted company sources as saying on April 18 that RWE would re-align the investments earmarked for buying the minority stake in the nuclear power plant to the acquisition of British Energy.
