If the bilateral deal is implemented, NEK will become a limited liability company with two owners each holding a 50-percent stake, namely Eles Gen, a company in exclusive ownership of the Slovenian power grid operator Elektro Slovenije, and the Croatian power utility HEP. Following the example of Croatian lawmakers (who passed an amendment to the accord in order to ensure control over the work of the Croatian delegation in the joint commission on the NEK agreement), Slovenian MPs added an amendment on the treatment of nuclear waste and used fuel rods as envisaged by a draft European directive.

According to the Slovenian Minister of the Environment, Energy and Spatial Planning, Janez Kopač, the amendment is not a correction to the bilateral deal, but rather an executive regulation. It was adopted due to pressure put on the government by municipalities located around the N-plant, who demanded an explicit guarantee that the state will find a permanent site for the nuclear waste by 2008 and construct a waste storage facility by 2013.

To back up the pressure, Krško mayor Franci Bogovič brought into the parliament a suitcase of signatures that were to be used to file a referendum initiative on NEK in case the local communities' demands were not met; the suitcase remained closed. The government also made the commitment that it would compensate the municipalities of Krško, Sevnica and Brežice for the temporary on-site storage of nuclear waste. While Krško is already receiving US$ 4 million a year, Brežice and Sevnica together will get half of this sum annually.

As stipulated in the agreement, both Slovenia and Croatia were to ratify the document on July 1, 2002. The Croatian parliament managed to confirm it on July 3 last year, but it also took the decision to withdraw the ratification if Slovenia fails to okay it by the end of 2002. The ratification has not been withdrawn. The accord - signed on the ministerial level in mid-December 2001 - was to enter into force immediately after being ratified by both parliaments.

Croatia was to start receiving its share of the NEK-generated power on July 1, 2002, after four years of being cut off due to its failure to pay for the delivered power. This is unlikely to happen even though the agreement has been ratified, since both Slovenia and Croatia have already signed contracts for power supply for 2003. Most likely, Croatia will start receiving its share of power (some 2.5 billion kWh) from Krško starting in 2004.

In addition to splitting NEK ownership share into two equal parts and transforming the N-plant from a public company to a limited liability company, Slovenia and Croatia determined in the agreement that the company's assembly and two-tier management would be made up of an equal number of members from both countries. The accord also nullifies the liabilities of both sides, but only for the period up to July 1, 2002. For the period until Slovenia officially notifies Croatia of the ratification, Eles Gen and HEP will have to reach a new settlement on ways to compensate Croatia for the undelivered power.