EU urges Kosovo to move ahead with power project
April 4th, 2008 | by admin |By Matt Robinson
PRISTINA, April 4 (Reuters) - Newly independent Kosovo mustmove ahead swiftly with a project to build a new power plant orrisk running out of electricity by 2010, a senior European Unionofficial said on Friday.
The 3.5 billion euro ($5.50 billion) ‘Kosovo C’ project tobuild a coal-fired plant and develop a new mine “needs to bemoved on urgently”, said Paul Acda, head of the EU wing of theUnited Nations mission in Kosovo.
“If it isn’t, the potentiality is that Kosovo will run outof coal, run out of energy between 2010 and 2012,” he told anews conference.
Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia with Westernbacking on Feb 17, faces significant electricity shortages asits decrepit Socialist-era monopoly struggles to meet demand.
The previous government had promised to choose between fourinternational bidders by the end of 2007. Kosovo C projectmanager Lorik Haxhiu said the change of government late lastyear and Kosovo’s bid for independence had delayed the project.
“If we manage to choose the company by the end of this year,that will be good,” he told Reuters.
The project involves the construction of a 2.47 billion eurocoal-fired power plant with a capacity of up to 2,100 MW, theoverhaul of the existing electricity plant and development of anew lignite mine nearby.
The previous government narrowed the race down to four bids:
