Energy, EU – Baltic States, Legislation, Lithuania, Nuclear power plant

"I have spoken about it with Latvian, Estonian and Polish ministers," added Sekmokas.

PGE CEO Tomasz Zadroga stepped down yesterday. His deputy Marek Szostek was fired by the company's supervisory board, informs LETA/ELTA.

Deputy chief Pawel Skowronski will be the company's acting CEO.

"I do not have any confirmation, but, on the basis of the information at my disposal, Zadroga was sacked, possibly due to his decision to freeze the company's role in the project without the government's consent," Sekmokas told Lithuanian MPs.

As reported, on December 9, PGE decided to freeze its participation in the Visaginas nuclear power plant project in neighboring Lithuania.

"Given the conditions, which have turned out to be unacceptable at the current point, and given our group's other key projects, we have decided to freeze our participation in this program before making any formal commitments," pointed out Zadroga.

Lithuania moved swiftly to play down PGE's move.

"The withdrawal of one partner is not critical for us. We are continuing our work with our regional partners and the strategic investor," said Sekmokas.

The leadership of Poland's energy PGE was dismissed because of the company's decision to exit the Visaginas nuclear power plant (NPP) project. PGE's resignation from participating in Lithuanian NPP is the immediate cause of the resignation, the daily Parkiet wrote citing a source close to the government.

PGE will suffer no negative changes as far as key investment projects are concerned, and can even see an acceleration of the investment process, Treasury Minister Mikolaj Budzanowski told reporters, commenting on the strategy update in the light of PGE CEO resignation, The Warsaw Voice reports.

PGE will have its new CEO selected in a competition, based on "transparency and competitiveness," the minister told reporters on Thursday.

There has been some speculation about changes after the parliamentary elections, KBC Securities analyst Robert Maj commented for PAP news agency. "It seemed that (Zadroga) was resilient to political pressure when it comes to the project in Lithuania. The decision to suspend that project was right from a business point of view, considering the fact that PGE is to build a nuclear power plant itself," Maj said. As reported, Poland's PGE Friday decided to freeze its participation in the Visaginas NPP project in Lithuania. PGE is nearly 70 percent owned by the State Treasury.

Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Poland previously agreed to jointly implement the project.

PGE is in charge of Poland's own atomic power program, and is poised to launch the tendering process for the country's first nuclear plant, which it aims to bring online by 2020.