ArmInfo. The promise of building a new nuclear power plant in Armenia will not be restrained by anyone in Europe. The similar opinion was expressed by ArmInfo Director of the EurAsEC Institute Vladimir Lepekhin.
"To promise Yerevan a new nuclear power plant in exchange for the one that the European Union demands to close Brussels, of course it can, but it is more than obvious that no European country is going to invest in the construction of a new nuclear power plant in Armenia. The EU can simply say that Armenia did not personally promise anything, therefore, in order to make the promises of Brussels more promising, Yerevan should sign an agreement on the construction of a new nuclear power plant with a specific company from Europe, "stressed street expert.
November 24, 2017 at the Brussels summit of the "Eastern Partnership" Armenia plans to sign a partnership document on the partnership with the EU, which was initialed on March 21 - the Agreement on Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership. The relevant talks were initiated by the Council of Foreign Ministers of the EU on October 12, 2015 in Luxembourg.
In this light, Lepekhin believes that the European Union should not set conditions for Armenia to close the Metsamor nuclear power plant. According to his estimates, the goals of Brussels in the case of Armenia do not differ much from the situation in which the EU promised Azerbaijan investments in the Nabucco gas pipeline for gas export to Europe. He recalled that the EU had not invested money in implementing this project in Nabucco. A similar scenario, according to his forecasts, awaits Armenia after the closure of the nuclear power plant in Metsamor.
One of the points of the Armenia-EU Agreement concerns the Metsamor nuclear power plant. It contains, albeit not imperative, without clear dates and schedules, recommendations for closing and safe decommissioning of Metsamor NPP due to non-compliance with modern safety standards. And also an early adoption of a road map or an action plan, taking into account the need to replace it with new capacities. " Among the signatories of the document, in addition to the EU member states, Euroatom is also the European Atomic Energy Community.