The EU Court canceled the permission for Hungary to finance the construction of a nuclear power plant with the participation of the Russian Federation
The EU Court cancelled the decision of the European Commission, by which it agreed in 2017 to provide Hungary with state aid for the joint “Rosatom” of the Paksh-2 NPP construction project.
In its decision, the court emphasized that the European Commission should have checked the compliance of the direct contract concluded with the Russian company for the construction of two power units with the rules of EU public procurement, but this was not done. That is why the High Court decided to cancel the previous approval of aid from the Hungarian government for the construction of new reactors.
Construction of two units at the “Paksh” takes place under a direct contract with “Rosatom” within the framework of the agreement between Russia and Hungary on the peaceful use of nuclear energy. To finance most of the project, Russia granted Hungary a state loan. In “Rosatom” have already announced that they will continue the implementation of the project “Paksh-2” together with “Hungarian partners”, despite the verdict of the European court.
Recall that in 2014, Russia and Hungary signed an agreement on the construction of two new power units #5 and #6 (“Paksh-2”). The total cost of the project is 12.5 billion euros, of which 10 billion were to be provided by the Russian side in the form of a loan, and another 2.5 billion were to be financed by the Hungarian government. It was this share that was approved by the European Commission.
This decision was opposed by the Austrian government, which filed a lawsuit in the European Court. At first, the court of first instance did not support Austria’s request, but the appeal was satisfied, and now the position has been confirmed by the highest court of the EU.
