CRO POWER SUPPLY APPALLED AT KRSKO NUCLEAR POWER PLANT SUIT

( Editorial: --> 7898 ) LJUBLJANA/ZAGREB, July 15 (Hina) - The nuclear power plant Krsko has filed a suit against the Republic of Croatia with the Krsko District Court, demanding that Croatia pay a debt of about DM 100 million for the electric power supply from Krsko, Slovene radio reported Wednesday. Slovenia and Croatia are joint owners of produced electric power but not of the plant itself, Krsko power plant director Stane Rozman told radio. According to Slovene radio, the District Court will probably not decide about the suit before autumn although the case has been given priority. The Slovene Government will meet on Thursday to discuss this issue and the Croatian-Slovene relations. There still exists a possibility for the plant to stop power supply to Croatia. According to Slovene radio, a recently broken-off session of the plant's provisional management will most probably not be continued next Monday because of the Croatian Power Supply (HEP) debt and Slovenia's request for Croatia to approve as soon as possible bank guarantees for the plant's modernisaton, amounting to DM 130 million. The information on the suit is an unpleasant surprise, aide to Croatian Economy Minister on energetics and mining, Roman Nota, told Hina. The suit comes at a time when the two sides are trying to reach an agreement on the legal regulation concerning the management of the plant and ownership questions. The construction of the plant, which is located on the Slovene territory, was jointly financed by Croatia and Slovenia, which were then members of the former federation. After the two countries became independent, some differences arose concerning the legal regulation of management and ownership matters. The suit shows that the plant's management is becoming disoriented and it is not certain what caused that move, Nota said, adding Croatia hoped the Slovene Government was not supporting the move. Speaking about the DM 100 million, mentioned as "Croatia's debt", Nota said that Slovene officials lately had been speaking of a debt, amounting to between DM 20 to even 225 million. Nota described these estimations as unfounded. Commenting on the last, broken-off session of the provisional management (held on July 10), and the possibility of its taking place on July 20, Nota said that Croatia had been ready to "nevertheless accept" some decisions already adopted by the Slovene side and the provisional management without previous consultations with the Croatian side. Now, however, the Croatian side will think about what to do because negotiations are being requested while at the same time a suit is being filed, he added. The co-owner of the plant is not the Republic of Croatia but the HEP, Nota warned. HEP management director Damir Begovic has warned about this and other pieces of false information published by Slovene radio. Begovic told Hina that it was not known how the Slovene side had arrived at the figure of DM 100 million of the "debt". He also stressed that the said session of the provisional management had not discussed bank guarantees for the plant's modernisation but the procedure for its adoption. The implementation of that decision was to be discussed later, he added. There is no Croatian debt to the plant. HEP is paying operating and production costs of the Krsko plant, Begovic said. The unpaid costs amount to about DM 10 million, both Begovic and Nota said. (hina) jn rml 152029 MET jul 98