The European Commission says it has opened an investigation into whether Poland's plans to grant state aid for the country’s first nuclear power plant are in line with EU rules.
The move comes after Warsaw itself requested EU approval for a hefty public aid package for the state-owned company that will carry out the project in Lubiatowo-Kopalino, on the northern Polish coastline.
The support package consists of a cash injection of €14 billion covering 30% of the project’s total costs as well as state guarantees for 100% of the company’s debt and a contract for difference providing revenue stability over the entire 60-year lifetime of the plant.
Without such measures, the project would not be feasible, the European Commission said in a statement.
Nevertheless, Brussels has decided to take an in-depth look at the support package “to ensure that overall no more aid than what is strictly necessary is ultimately granted.”
The 3,750 MW nuclear power plant in Lubiatowo-Kopalino is estimated to cost about €45 billion and is expected to go online in the second half of 2030.
It will be Poland’s first foray into nuclear power since it abandoned the construction of its Soviet-era plant in the coastal village of Żarnowiec in the 1980s in light of the Chernobyl catastrophe and the imminent collapse of the USSR.
It is also a key step in Poland’s sluggish energy transition away from coal-fired power plants, which are not only notorious polluters but also increasingly unprofitable.
