Hungary: Paks Nuclear Expansion Does Not Involve State Aid
Hungary's government believes a Russian-backed project to expand its Paks nuclear power plant does not involve state aid, Prime Minister Viktor Orban's office said in a statement to state news agency MTI on Monday.
"The Hungarian government is firmly of the view that the Paks II project does not involve state aid, and any rational investor would implement the investment because the expected returns of the project are higher than the cost of capital invested," the statement said.
It said Hungary had not tapped a favourably priced 10 billion euro ($10.6 billion) Russian loan that would finance the bulk of the costs of expansion.
European Union regulators will investigate whether Hungary's plan to finance the construction of two new nuclear reactors breaches the bloc's state aid rules, four days after it took the country to court over the tender for the project.
(Reporting by Gergely Szakacs)
