The final decision on the tender for the expansion of the Dukovany nuclear power plant will be made by the next Czech government, said Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Industry and Transport Karel Havlicek  on March 25. This postpones any decision on whether to let Russia's Rosatom into the tender until after the October general election.

"We are about to launch the last phase of the tender. Based on discussions with representatives of the investors, security forces and political parties, we decided to carry out the phase of the so-called security assessment before the start of the tender itself. The final decision will be up to the next government," said Havlicek, an ANO party nominee, in a statement on March 25.

"With this step, we are reaching out to those who in any way doubted the fulfilment of safety requirements, at the same time we will not significantly delay the course of the tender. Tenderers can already work on their projects, supply chain and other components of the offer as they obtain the additional information they need,” he added. 

"The project has not stopped, this is important for [state-controlled energy group] CEZ. For the processing of safety requirements, bidders will have the opportunity to get acquainted with the detailed technical specification of the contracting authority's requirements for a new nuclear unit, based on preliminary documentation for the tender. So we are not wasting time," commented CEZ spokesman Ladislav Kriz, quoted by the Czech News Agency. 

The construction of the unit should start in 2029 and the trial operation will be in force until 2036. 

According to the ministry, the country plans to approach four bidders to participate in a pre-qualification round for a tender: France's EdF, South Korea's KNHP, Canadian-American Westinghouse and also Russia's Rosatom. A Chinese bidder, China General Nuclear, was excluded. 

“It should be noted that this approach of the Czech side seriously deviates from the principle of fair competition and the rules of international trade and seriously damages the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese business,” the Chinese embassy responded.

To exclude the Chinese bidder was agreed by the government and the opposition leaders at the beginning of this year. "Basically, we all believe that China is an unimaginable potential supplier to us in the tender. At the same time, the political parties are divided in the attitude of a certain part of politicians who would like to exclude Russia [too], while another part wants to keep it there," the minister said in January. 

Russian participation in the tender was criticized by part of the opposition for security reasons and the issue was raised during the parliamentary session the next day, on March 26. 

The MPs criticised Havlicek that he had ´sold´ the tender to the Communist party for the extension of the state of emergency regarding COVID-19. The ANO-CSSD minority government has a formal agreeement with the opposition Communist party that provides it with support in parliament on many issues.

“On Monday and Tuesday, we heard that the Communists would not support the government's request to extend the state of emergency. Then a Russian company is invited to a tender for Dukovany, the Communists meet and the Central Committee of the Communist party changes its mind and recommends to its deputies to support the request for extension of the state of emergency,” said MP Zbynek Stanjura (Civic Democrats) during the session. 

“I want to assure everyone that we really have nothing to hide,” said ANO Prime Minister Andrej Babis in response to a series of critical statements by opposition parties. He also promised he will call a state security council meeting on Monday March 29 to address this issue. 

“I will convene an extraordinary state security council on Monday morning at 7 am, the government will discuss it on Monday afternoon and we will then inform the opposition through the committee for Dukovany construction,” he added. 

According to J&T Banka the announcement of postponing the decision to the new government is considered to be “neutral for CEZ because the state is the investor and any related costs will be reimbursed to CEZ in some form in the future.”