The Serbian government adopted a letter of support for the Kolubara B power plant project Thursday, Elektroprivreda Srbije (EPS) CEO Dragomir Markovic said on the same day.

The director of Serbia's national power company announced that the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is in the final stages of review to approve EUR 400 million for the project.

The construction of the Kolubara B thermal power plant should begin next year and Italy's Edison SpA, the strategic partner in the project, will do everything in its power to have the implementation of the project begin on time, the company executives announced today, after a meeting with the management of EPS.

The next step is to establish a joint company and conduct a feasibility study for Kolubara B, they added.

Markovic told a preš conference that the letter of support concerns Edison and EPS, the partner investors to build the plant, strešing that the letter was of great importance for the financial institutions, led by the EBRD, to approve funding for the project.

The investment is estimated at more than EUR 1 billion.

Markovic said that Edison was selected through an international tender procedure for the selection of a partner to build two 375-megawatt blocks in the power plant.

The construction of Kolubara B began in 1988, and for the works completed and equipment purchased so far by EPS, which it should put up as its stake in a joint company that will build the new plant, EPS was offered a 36.4 percent stake in the ownership.

According to earlier estimates, EPS has so far invested around EUR 300 million in the Kolubara B project. The plan is to have the power plant completed by 2017.