BRATISLAVA, November 26, (WEBNOVINY– Neither the new leadership of the Economy Ministry plans to make the contract between the Slovak state-run nuclear decommissioning company JAVYS and the Czech energy group CEZ public to the full extent. The parties of the incumbent ruling coalition criticized the failure of the former government to publish the shareholder contract based on which the construction of a new nuclear power plant in Jaslovske Bohunice should be secured, when they were in the opposition. “The contract between the Czech CEZ and Slovak JAVYS is to a large extent public with the exception of parts descriptions of which have been made public. The parts made public only by description fall under the definition of a business secret in the Commercial Code and under restrictions stipulated in the law on free access to information. Experts have agreed that making the contract public above these limits would seriously damage the project itself, shareholders’ rights as well as Slovakia’s strategic interests,” the Economy Ministry told SITA news agency.
According to former economy minister and current opposition deputy for SMER-SD Lubomir Jahnatek, under whom the contract was signed, there are currently no obstacles to making the contract public at full extent. “Today the then opposition, which was speaking loudly about the non-transparency of the selection of a strategic partner and the contract, eventually got to all materials which we had to make confidential for a certain period of time in order to prevent various land mobs from getting to lucrative businesses. Now, those processes have been over and Minister Miskov can make the entire contract public, because there is nothing to wait for,” Jahnatek said.
The contract between the Slovak nuclear decommissioning company JAVYS and the Czech energy giant CEZ, based on which construction of a new nuclear power plant in Jaslovske Bohunice should be secured, is already okay, according to Economy Minister Juraj Miskov (SaS). “From our point of view, the contract is all right, it is correct, balanced for both sides and we see no reason not to continue in the contract,” said Miskov at a press conference last week. Prior to the June parliamentary elections, all current ruling coalition parties, then as opposition parties, criticized what they called non-transparent selection of a partner for construction of the new nuclear plant. The then opposition parties as well as the party SaS which nominated Miskov to the post of minister, did not like that time that the Cabinet of Robert Fico chose CEZ as its strategic partner directly without any open selection procedure.
It, however, seems that plans for the project of a new power plant in Jaslovske Bohunice are not final at all. The decision on the construction of a new nuclear power plant in Jaslovske Bohunice has been postponed until later. “The final decision whether and where the new electric energy source will be built will only be known after a thorough review of results of the feasibility study. This is expected no sooner than in early 2012,” said the Economy Ministry following a meeting of Economy Minister Juraj Miskov with Czech Minister of Industry and Trade Martin Kocourek earlier this month. According to original plans, the feasibility study should have been completed in early 2011.
SITA