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EU: Antitrust regulators to probe Hungarian nuclear funding

By  |  November 23, 2015

The European Union’s competition authorities have opened an in-depth probe to see whether Hungary’s financing for two new nuclear reactors breached the bloc’s state-aid rules.

Hungary wants to expand its plant in Paks and last year picked Russian state-owned company Rosatom to build the reactors, partly funded by a favourably priced 10 billion euro Russian loan.

The European Commission said it was concerned that the Hungarian investment might not be compatible with market pricing and opened an in-depth investigation into the business case for the construction, operation and decommissioning of the two reactors.

“Given the size and importance of the Paks project, the Commission has to carefully assess whether Hungary’s investment is indeed on market terms or whether it involves state aid. This requires a complex analysis,” European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said.

Full content: The Wall Street Journal

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