On the 14th January, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán concluded an agreement with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, on expansion of the Paks Nuclear Power Plant, engaging Hungary in a 30-year financial loan.
"Forty percent of the volume of work will be implemented by Hungary, which means that three billion dollars will be spent on maintaining jobs in Hungary, and tax revenues alone will amount to over one billion dollars," remarked Putin. Russia will finance the project by allocating 10 billion euros (80 percent of the construction costs) in the form of a 30-year loan. Russian newspaper Pravda quoted Hungarian sources as saying this was the best deal Hungary had been offered.
However, important details of the Paks pact remain unknown. In fact Hungary's members of parliament do not even know what they voted on, states the website 444, based on a report by the Energiaklub Climate Policy Institute, whose mid-January inquiry was rejected by the Ministry of National Development. Furthermore, full details of the Paks agreement have been classified and cannot be revealed for 10 years, according to Hungarian newspaper index.hu. (Click the links for further information and details about the Paks pact.)
"Energy is not just a matter of policy decisions made behind closed doors"
So said Matthias Köchl, representative of the Austrian Greens and also, as he says himself, of people "who stand up for the freedom of citizens to choose their own future and to choose their own energy resources". Köchl was speaking in front of the Ministry of National Economy building, on Sunday, 26th January, and added that, "the future of energy must be the choice of the people – a choice Hungary has sadly been denied".
Matthias Köchl
Matthias Köchl was invited by LMP, the Hungarian green party, to present the Austrian energy model as an alternative to the second unit at Paks. After Köchl's speech, Bernadett Szél and Kata Csiba, representing LMP, talked with people who gathered at the event, despite the cold that surprised the country that weekend.....
Matthias Köchl was invited by LMP, the Hungarian green party, to present the Austrian energy model as an alternative to the second unit at Paks. After Köchl's speech, Bernadett Szél and Kata Csiba, representing LMP, talked with people who gathered at the event, despite the cold that surprised the country that weekend.....
Bernadett Szél
Kata Csiba
The visibly confident disregard for public opinion and the democratic decision-making process was only one of the critical points the Austrian green politician raised at the meeting. Emphasizing the fact that the decision on construction of the second unit of the Paks nuclear power plant had been taken behind the back of the Hungarian people, and that nuclear energy carried the risk of irreversible tragedy, particularly in the case of countries the size of Austria and Hungary, Matthias Köchl called for Hungary to follow the Austrian model of renewable energy policy: a fight against nuclear energy.edited by Csilla Katona
proofread by Copyfit Budapest
Fear and loathing at Paks -The fearful shadow of an irreversible tragedy / part 2. and
Fear and loathing at Paks -The fearful shadow of an irreversible tragedy / part 3.