Despite the EU’s objections, lawmakers in the upper house of one of Bosnia’s semi-autonomous regions decided on Monday to issue guarantees for a loan the public electric utility company intends to take from a Chinese bank in order to build a thermal power plant.
The decision of the House of Peoples of the Federation (FBiH), one of the two semi-autonomous entities in the country, was adopted with 46 votes in favour and three abstinences.
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The 450 MW Block 7 in Tuzla will cost a whopping €870 million, of which 614 million will be coming from a loan granted by China’s Exim bank.
The parliament of the Federation (FBiH) previously adopted several decisions needed for the beginning of the construction of Block 7, which is supposed to substitute the already outdated blocks 1, 2, 3 and 4, which are due to shut gradually by 2027.
EU officials have previously expressed concern that outdated technology will be installed in the new plant but Bosnia’s officials insist the technology will be imported from the United States.
EU Enlargement Commissioner, Johannes Hahn, has in early March criticised the FBiH parliament decision, saying that it raises serious questions “not only about Bosnia's commitment to international treaties and European rules under the Energy Community Treaty but also about the choice of the energy technology as well as about a sound cost-benefit analysis in a responsible and transparent manner.”
FBiH Prime Minister, Fadil Novalic, reacted to the statement, saying that the FBiH entity has no alternative because the scenario of it running out of power by 2027 is real. It would compromise the entire energy system of the country, and the consequences of this scenario would be devastating, he said.
