On 21 June, the European Movement Lithuania (EML) invited the European community to discuss Chernobyl’s lessons for Europe with regard to the exploitation of the Belarusian nuclear power plant in Astravyets, which began operations last year, less than 20 km away from the external EU border and next to the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius.

“Stepping on the same rake” is a Lithuanian phrase that describes being foolish enough to make the same mistake repeatedly. This title was chosen with reference to the Astravyets NPP, which was launched last year, despite the fact that Belarus failed to implement crucial European nuclear safety recommendations and remains non-compliant with a number of international nuclear safety agreements. There have been many accidents, deaths of constructions workers, and most importantly the constant concealment of information at this site, which should remind us of the notorious Soviet approach to nuclear safety that led to tragic consequences in the case of the Chernobyl NPP disaster. During the gathering, experts and high-level politicians discussed the current situation regarding nuclear safety in Europe and ways to ensure that our future will never again be endangered by the repetition of a nuclear disaster.

Egidijus Meilūnas, Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania, while speaking at the beginning of the event underlined the devastating effects of the Chernobyl accident: “The disaster caused losses and sufferings for people in Ukraine, Belarus, and other countries. High levels of radiation spread around the globe. Lots of people were heavily exposed to high-level radiation and participated in the liquidation of the accident’s consequences. It is the right time to remember those who lost their lives because of this accident”. According to Vice-Minister, after thirty-five years Belarus, which seriously felt and still remembers the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster, is stepping on the same rake while commissioning NPP on its own land. Recently the Astravyets name was also used by Belarus and Russia to justify the “hijacking” of a commercial airplane that was forcefully landed on the 23^rd of May 2021. It is a serious signal to the international community regarding the unsafe NPP. Vice-Minister invited the international community to support all efforts directed at preventing further expansion of the Belarusian NPP and achieve full closure of the unsafe object.

In his opening remarks, Petros Fassoulos, Secretary-General of the European Movement International, noted that the subject is both timely and pertinent – both because of the imminent danger that is posed by the current developments in Belarus and because of the wider implications that it has for European security. According to Petros Fassoulas, the subject of this discussion is a strong reminder of the need for Europe to pull together much more in the areas of security and defence, because in this particular case energy and security are aligned.

In her keynote speech, Ms. Irina Grouchevaia, a Human Rights Activist, Founder of the initiative “For the Children of Chernobyl” and Winner of the “Women of Europe 2011” Award, presented Chernobyl’s lessons for today’s Europe. “And what is happening today? History repeats itself!,” noted I. Grouchevaia. “A new nuclear power plant has been built, this time in Belarus.” She stressed that the state authorities are known to lie and hide information from the civil society, although they are aware that even by exposing the society to this potential threat they will not be able to protect it in case of a disaster.

Romas Švedas, former Vice-Minister of Energy in Lithuania and EML Board Member, followed up the point made by Ms. Grouchevaia, emphasizing that what happened 35 years ago in Chernobyl is now happening again in Belarus. According to Romas Švedas, the answer to the question in the title is clear; unfortunately, as Europeans, we are stepping on the same rake. In the same way that the Kremlin hid the facts of the Chernobyl disaster, Belarus has been acting exactly the same way decades later with regard to the Belarusian NPP. On 7 March 2021, immediately after the incident at the Belarus NPP took place, the Belarus Authorities stopped providing data to the European Radiological Data Exchange Platform (EURDEP) for several hours, most likely to hide the negative impact. Not to mention breaching various international nuclear safety conventions, there have been data recordings proving that Belarus has already hidden various incidents from the EU and its own citizens.

Petras Auštrevičius, Member of the European Parliament, elaborated on the threats posed by the Astravyets NPP and briefly introduced the Movement against the Astravyets NPP, a non-partisan NGO centered in Lithuania, which was established to raise awareness in Lithuania and the whole of the European Union on the Astravyets NPP. According to P. Auštrevičius, all Europeans must not only speak about historical lessons but must take preventive measures to rule out the possibility of them happening in the future. The Belarusian NPP was launched despite the fact that Belarus failed to comply, and remains non-compliant with the Espoo Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context, in particular with regard to the selection of the Astravyets site as well as regarding the harsh breaches of the nuclear safety standards and unimplemented EU stress tests. On 23 May 2021, the threat of using violence against a civilian aircraft in the skies over Belarus was a reminder of the illegitimacy of the administration claiming authority in Minsk. As P. Auštrevičius stressed, in this case, the international nuclear safety conventions can not be perceived only as a piece of paper, and it is crucial that we demand full compliance from Belarus with the international nuclear safety standards. According to him, we have to achieve European solidarity and take action at the right time in order to prevent the further expansion of this unsafe nuclear power station, as nuclear safety is not a national or regional but is an international matter.

Rebecca Harms, a former Member of the European Parliament and nuclear safety expert, expressed the hope that the EU will not have to pay a high price for being inconsistent in the struggle with the Belarusian authorities, at least regarding the compliance with the EU stress tests, which the Belarusian authorities have failed to implement despite the fact that the Astravyets NPP has already been launched. Nuclear stations pose many problems and severe incidents can happen, even in democratic states with full transparency, and that is not the case in Belarus.

Tatiana Novikova, Representative of the Belarusian NGO “Ekodom” spoke from the perspective of the Belarusian civil society. Despite the attempts by the regime to silence anti-nuclear activists, they relentlessly fight against this Belarusian NPP for over 12 years. T. Novikova also draws attention to the fact that in the 2017 Aarhus Conference, Belarus was found to have violated the convention that protects the public right to information and participation in decision-making regarding environmental protection.

However, despite presenting some chilling possible scenarios and discussing the current nuclear threats to Europe posed by the Belarusian regime, the speakers agreed that European solidarity and united action towards the Belarusian regime could be an effective measure to ensure a safe European future.

The discussion was moderated by Vykintas Pugačiauskas, Editor of International News at Lithuanian National Radio and Television.

Watch the full video here.