Bulgarian Finance Minister Djankov: Bulgaria to withdraw from the NPP Belene construction project

I have never reckoned that the NPP Belene construction project is economically and financially substantiated, stated yesterday on the Bulgarian National Television (BNT), the Deputy PM and Finance Minister, Simeon Djankov.

According to him, so long as the price of a given project is not determined and if there is no clarity on its actual profitability, it will be more beneficial not to implement it. During his visit to Moscow, Djankov stated to the Russian partners, that, soon, the Bulgarian side will announce its withdrawal from the project. Over the last year, other aggravating factors emerged such as the environmental disaster with the Japanese NPP Fukushima and, as a result, I am even more convinced that this project should not be implemented, said Djankov. He added that Bulgaria would like to remain a partner with the Russian side in the economic field.

Moscow has already manufactured one of the reactors for the NPP Belene and it is expected to be ready for delivery to Bulgaria within a month. One option is for the reactor to be remodelled as the seventh unit of NPP Kozloduy. Alternatively, with Russian help, we can resell it and start constructing anew the seventh reactor of the first NPP, explained Djankov.

The Deputy Prime Minister stated that €10-15 mln have already been allocated for the Bourgas-Alexandroupolis pipeline project from which our country withdrew. No penalties will be paid on that project. The NPP Belene construction project was also legally substantiated, but I think that this fact does not exclude the imposition of penalties, reckoned Djankov. He predicted that the lawsuits instigated against the plant will be protracted for another 10-15 years and "if the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights sanctions Bulgaria for some reasons, then we will seek a sentence against it for something else," reckoned the Deputy PM.

According to the last Russian proposal for the construction of NPP Belene, its price should be at least €6.3 bn, while the reactors could have been ready by the end of 2018. The final deadline of the NPP construction contract will expire at the end of next week. The construction agreement was signed in 2006 between NEK (National Electricity Company) and Atomstroyexport, and the project's value was expected to be under €4 bn.

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