ZAGREB GIVES ADDITIONAL EXPLANTIONS URGING MPS TO RATIFY KRSKO DEAL

ZAGREB, June 25 (Hina) - Croatia's parliament should this week discuss the ratification of a Croatian-Slovenian agreement on the nuclear power plant Krsko. For this purpose the Croatian government last week forwarded additional explanations to MPs to assure them that it would be economically justified and positive for Croatia to retain its 50-percent stock in the power plant. #L# The agreement, signed by Croatian and Slovenian government officials at the end of 2001, has not yet been ratified by parliaments of the two countries. There is no much time for the ratification as the document envisages that Croatia should again take over power from the plant in that Slovenian town as of 1 July. However, there are possibilities for the ratification as both Croatia's Sabor and Slovenia's Drzavni Zbor are in session this week. The motion of the ratification is to be put on the agenda of the Croatian parliament. But, the situation in the Slovenian parliament has become complicated to some extent as authorites of the town of Krsko managed to gather signatures of 31 MPs necessary for a request, which they forwarded to the Slovenian Constitutional Court last week asking it to assess whether the agreement is in compliance with the country's constitution. Competent officials in Croatia's Economy Ministry have said that all possibilities are still open: the deal may be ratified by both parliaments this week, or both parliaments may fail to do it, or it can happen that one parliament ratifies it but the other does not. In the case of the document's ratification, Croatia will again act as the co-owner of the plant, holding 50 percent of the plant's shares, and this will enable Croatia to take over power as of 1 July. All other possibilities will mean the preservation of the status quo: Croatia, i.e. its power industry HEP would not take part in the management and decision-making about Krsko, and Croatia could not receive power from that plant. In this case Croatia would probably refuse a new round of negotiations and is likely to opt for the suit or international arbitration. The Croatian government forwarded additional explanations to parliamentarians last week in a bid to persuade them to vote for the ratification. The Slovenian government, however, last week only announced the price and conditions for the transmission of the electricity to Croatia's HEP if ratification may not be done in the end of June. According to the Slovenian proposal, the price should be 29.697 euros per megawatthour. Croatian experts believe the price has been wrongly calculated. According to the Croatian proposal, the price of 2.6 US cents per kilowatthour would be by about 10 percent too expensive. Croatian experts insist that Croatia retains its share in the power plant. They explain that the half of the plant with capacity of 2.5 billion kWh annually by 2023 will cover 17 percent of the current spending of the electricity in Croatia. They claim that costs of the production of the power from this plant including costs for the storage of nuclear waste are still cheaper than costs Croatia may incur if it must seek a substitute from some other source (such as the import of power of the construction of any new plant). If Ljubljana and Zagreb finally have the ratifed agreement, than both sides would withdraw their suits. Croatia would withdraw an action it took against Slovenia after Ljubljana unilaterally transformed the plant into its public company in July 1998. Croatia also sued Slovenia for its failure to send the electircity from the plant to Croatia since that time. Slovenia has taken the action against Croatia for its debts in the payment of the power until July 1998. (hina) ms