Monitor: Takac: Meeting on New Nuclear Power Plant to Take Place on Monday

(TA3,'V politike', 23 August) Speaking on TA3's discussion programme 'V politike' (In Politics) on Sunday, Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Richard Takac (Smer-SD) stated that a meeting of the shareholders of the Slovak Nuclear Energy Company (JESS), that is JAVYS and CEZ, which is set to build a new nuclear power station in Jaslovske Bohunice (Trnava region), is scheduled to take place on Monday, 24 August at the Government Office. JESS is a joint venture between the state-owned Nuclear and Decommissioning Company (JAVYS), which holds a 51-percent stake, and Czech company CEZ, which owns 49 percent of the company's shares. The government is currently working to purchase CEZ's 49 percent stake in JESS. "Tomorrow (24 August) there will be a major joint meeting - I believe it'll be held at the Government Office - with JAVYS and CEZ in attendance. It'll be a joint meeting of all stakeholders. Economy Minister Denisa Sakova (Voice-SD) is also likely to attend. This joint meeting will take place and there will be some outcome from it; we'll see what that outcome will be," said the agriculture minister, adding that the outcome of the negotiations may well be a request for a third or further expert valuation of the price of CEZ's 49 percent stake in JESS. Opposition MP for Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) Alojz Hlina remarked ironically that he was "filled with immense confidence" by the fact that the management of JESS, which is to build the nuclear power plant (NPP), includes the son of former economy minister Lubomir Jahnatek (Smer-SD). He also criticised the widely reported price of the new NPP, put at €15 billion. "From what my colleague Karol Galek (SaS) has said, the cost can be estimated at around €8 billion. And here, it's €15 billion," said Hlina. am