(CN) – The European Court of Justice scolded Slovakia on Thursday for imposing a charge on one of its own power companies to export electricity to other member states.
Slovakia adopted the scheme in 2008 following the cessation of two units at the Jaslovské Bohunice nuclear power plant. Though the charge is no longer applied, the Slovak company Korlea Invest, which is the legal successor to the company FENS, at the time faced a requirement to pay 6.8 million euros.
Westinghouse, the Japanese-US atomic group, is pressing the EU to introduce competition rules that will break eastern Europe’s dependence on Russian nuclear fuel.
While the crisis in Ukraine has focused attention on Europe’s vulnerability to a cut in supplies of gas from Russia, Westinghouse argues that Brussels must also respond to similar security risks posed by Moscow’s control of nuclear fuel in the eastern EU.
The EU has 18 Russian-designed nuclear power plants
Following the loss of the Malaysian airliner last week, European leaders are once again wrestling with the question of how to respond to Russia over its role in the Ukraine crisis.
They are reluctant to get tough, much more so than the United States.
The EU could easily end up doing itself a lot of economic harm, most obviously if Russia were to respond by turning down the gas.
Slovensko Elektrarne Will Have to Buy Russian Nuclear Exports
MOSCOW—Russia's largest lender Sberbank (SBER.MZ +0.11%) has agreed to provide a loan of €870 million ($1.18 billion) to Slovenske Elektrarne, some of which Slovakia's largest power company will have to spend on Russian nuclear exports, the companies said Tuesday.
The deal signed Monday follows a memorandum of understanding the two parties sealed at an international business forum in St. Petersburg in May, which came against a backdrop of cooling relations between Russia and the West over Ukraine crisis.
BUDAPEST, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary want the European Union to support nuclear energy projects and not to over-regulate the area, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Monday after a summit of the "Visegrad Four" countries.
The four also threw their backing behind shale gas extraction in Europe, and agreed to set up a natural gas market forum with the aim of fostering a regional gas market, which will convene in Budapest this month, Orban said.
Slovakia’s nuclear watchdog violated the law when it issued a building permit for Enel SpA’s 3.7 billion-euro ($5 billion) nuclear project because Greenpeace wasn’t allowed to comment, the Supreme Court ruled.
The Italian utility’s local unit, Slovenske Elektrarne AS, in 2009 began building two new reactors at the Mochovce nuclear power plant after receiving a permit by the Office for Nuclear Supervision. The high court asked the regulator to repeat the proceeding and include Greenpeace, according to the June 27 ruling posted on the office’s website today.
Enel SpA’s nuclear power plant expansion in Slovakia is at risk unless the east European country’s government “quickly” approves a plan to increase financing for the project, the company’s Slovak unit said.
Works at two additional reactors at the Mochovce site operated by Enel’s Slovenske Elektrarne AS may be halted unless its owners agree to boost spending by 800 million euros ($1.03 billion), Jana Burdova, a spokeswoman for the company, in which Enel has 66 percent, said in an e-mailed statement today. The project’s “complexity and a need to meet the latest safety standards” boosted building costs.
The construction of two new reactors at Mochovce nuclear plant by Enel SpA’s Slovak unit will cost more than planned and will be delayed by two years, Sme reported, citing Economy Minister Tomas Malatinsky.
The project is set to be completed by 2015, compared with the original deadline of 2013, while costs are expected to rise to 3.7 billion euros ($5 billion) from the originally estimated 2.8 billion euros, the newspaper quoted Malatinsky as saying.
Lithuania's prime minister says ending support in 2020 could delay the full closure of its Ignalina plant.
Leaders of the European Union's member states are expected at their summit next week (7-8 February) to agree to cover roughly half the costs of decommissioning Soviet-era nuclear power plants, as part of a deal on the EU's long-term budget.
The Czech Republic and Slovakia vowed on Monday to join forces on backing nuclear power within the EU when they held their first joint government meeting since the former Czechoslovakia split peacefully 20 years ago.
Prague and Bratislava will join forces "to prevent the torpedoing of further development of nuclear energy within the EU, including the Czech Republic and Slovakia," Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas told reporters.
