The European Court of Audit released on February 8 a report of its investigation into the EU financial assistance for the decommissioning of nuclear plants in Bulgaria, Lithuania and Slovakia, suggesting that the European Commission "should put in place the conditions for an effective, efficient and economical use of EU funds".

The report found that "as a result of a relatively loose policy framework, the [nuclear reactor decommissioning] programmes do not benefit from a comprehensive needs assessment, prioritisation, the setting of specific objectives and results to be achieved. Responsibilities are diffused, in particular with regard to monitoring and the achievement of programme objectives as a whole."

Furthermore, the projects lacked comprehensive assessments concerning the progress of decommissioning and mitigation processes, with key infrastructure components of the programmes recording delays and cost overruns.

Although the Soviet-era reactors in the three countries had been shut down between 2002 and 2009 – Bulgaria shut down two 440MW units at its Kozloduy nuclear power plant in 2004 and two more units with the same installed power in 2006 – the programmes have not yet triggered the required organisational changes to allow the operators to turn into effective decommissioning organisations.

Finally, the funds available for decommissioning, which included 2.85 billion euro combined for the three countries from the EU, would prove insufficient to complete decommissioning. The three countires needed a total 2.5 billion euro to complete the operation.

In its recommendation, the European Court of Auditors said that the European Commission should establish a detailed needs assessment showing the progress of the programmes so far, the activities still to be performed and an overall financing plan identifying the funding sources.

"Before further spending takes place, the Commission should analyse the resources available and the expected benefits. This should lead in turn to objectives being aligned with the budget made available and to the establishment of meaningful performance indicators, which can subsequently be monitored and reported on as necessary," the report said.

"Should the EU decide, as proposed by the Commission, to provide further financial assistance in the next multiannual financial framework, this support should be made conditional upon an ex ante evaluation of the EU added value of such intervention, identifying the specific activities to be financed through the EU budget and taking account of other funding facilities such as structural funds."