THE CONFERENCE,

Declaring the Union's willingness to continue to provide adequate additional assistance to Lithuania's decommissioning effort also after Lithuania's accession to the Union for the period until 2006 and beyond and noting that Lithuania, bearing in mind this expression of Union solidarity, has committed to close Unit 1 of the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant before 2005 and Unit 2 by 2009;

Recognising that the decommissioning of the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant with two 1500 MW RBMK-type reactor units inherited from the former Soviet Union is of an unprecedented nature and represents for Lithuania an exceptional financial burden not commensurate with the size and economic strength of the country and that this decommissioning will continue beyond the current Financial Perspective as defined by the Interinstitutional Agreement of 6 May 1999;

Noting the need to adopt implementing provisions for the additional Union assistance to address the consequences of the closure and the decommissioning of the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant;

Noting that Lithuania will pay due attention to the needs of the regions most affected by the closure of the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant in its use of Union assistance;

Declaring that certain measures that will be supported through public aid shall be considered as compatible with the internal market, such as the decommissioning of the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant, and the environmental upgrading in line with the acquis and modernisation of conventional electricity production capacity needed to replace the two Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant reactors after their closure,

Points out that specific provisions to that end have been included in Title IV of Part Two of the Protocol on the Treaty and Act of Accession of the Czech Republic, the Republic of Estonia, the Republic of Cyprus, the Republic of Latvia, the Republic of Lithuania, the Republic of Hungary, the Republic of Malta, the Republic of Poland, the Republic of Slovenia and the Slovak Republic.