Reports revive debate over nuclear plants

Date: 21/10/1999

By Gareth Harding

THE closure of potentially dangerous nuclear power plants in central and eastern Europe is emerging as one of the biggest obstacles to the candidate countries' bids to join the EU.

Presenting the European Commission's latest reports on the applicants' progress towards Union membership last week, President Romano Prodi stated bluntly that negotiations with Bulgaria should not begin until Sofia set “an acceptable closure date” for four unsafe reactors. The Commission wants the candidate country to shut down the plants by 2002, but the Bulgarian parliament approved a plan earlier this year to close them down by 2010.

The former Communist state is highly dependent on nuclear power. In March, Prime Minister Ivan Kostov described the EU's demand as a “meaningless diktat”. However, in the wake of Prodi's warning, diplomats have been making conciliatory gestures towards the Commission.

A similar row has broken out over the timetable for shelving the Soviet-style nuclear reactor in Bohunice, Slovakia. The Commission had originally expected Bratislava to close the high-risk reactor next year. But the EU executive said last week that it welcomed the country's plans to close the reactors in 2006-08 and would offer money to help towards the costs of decommissioning.

Austrian Environment Minister Martin Bartenstein attacked the move as incompatible with the EU's agreement with Slovakia and insisted that the reactors should be shut down before the country joins the Union. France and Germany are also believed to be unhappy with the Commission's reaction.

The Commission's reports paint a bleak picture of the candidate countries' progress in transposing EU environmental legislation, stating that “none of the countries has made significant headway in applying environmental laws”.