Budget, Energy, Financial Services, Investments, Lithuania, Nuclear power plant

"It will be done not only by the state budget but by the state energy company," Grybauskaite said in an interview in Brussels June 22 before the EU summit. "Latvian, Estonian and Polish companies are still pledging and would like to participate in the project."

Lithuania, together with its two Baltic neighbors and Poland, plans to build a nuclear plant in Visaginas by 2020 to diversify the region's energy resources after the closure of the Soviet-era Ignalina atomic facility at the end of 2009, informs LETA/ELTA, referring to Bloomberg.

Pittsburgh, PA-based Westinghouse Electric Corp. and Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy Ltd. are competing to supply equipment and acquire a controlling stake in the plant. Lithuania is "satisfied" to have received the two bids this month, Grybauskaite said.

It's too early to say how attractive the proposals are as talks are continuing, he added. A strategic investor may be offered as much as 51% in the project, while the remainder would be split between Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Poland, the government has said. The plant may cost 5 billion euros, according to official estimates.