Bulgarian President Calls Belene NPP Consultations

Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev is holding Friday political consultations for the upcoming referendum on the fate of the project to build a second Nuclear Power Plant in the Danube town of Belene.

Plevneliev is convinced that the referendum is a test for democracy and must be held.

The consultations will include parliamentary represented political parties in an attempt to reach consensus on the wording of the question to be asked.

They will be held in the Presidential building, starting at 1 pm. Each party has 1 hour. The opposition left-wing Bulgarian Socialist Party, BSP, are first to meet with Plevneliev, followed by the ruling center-right Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria party, GERB, the opposition ethnic Turkish's Movement for Rights and Freedoms, DPS, and the opposition right-wing Blue Coalition while those from the far-right nationalist Ataka party are last with a 5 pm starting time.

The GERB government scrapped the Belene NPP project in March 2012, declaring it economically unfeasible. The pro-Belene BSP then launched a petition for a referendum on the Russian-Bulgarian project's fate.

The inspection of the petition recently concluded, with 543 639 valid signatures, enough to make the vote irreversible.

The referendum is expected to take place within the next three months.

One day ago, Plevneliev reiterated his hope that the upcoming referendum on the fate of the Belene Nuclear Power Plant project will be "successfully organized," adding if this would be the case, he would not care who would win and who would lose.

source: novinite.com