17/03/2011 (Agence Europe) - German SPD wants Citizens' Initiative for addressing nuclear issue. “European citizens must decide and not nuclear lobbyists within the industry and governments. Fortunately, there is a new law for that in Europe, the European Citizens' Initiative”, the leader of the German Social Democrats, former Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel, explained in the Bild on Thursday 17 March. His approach is backed by Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann. Reacting to the nuclear disaster in Japan, German Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) decided to put a halt to the operation of seven rectors for at least three months, but the Social Democrat and Green opposition is calling for a definitive halt to all German nuclear plants by 2020, as Merkel's predecessor, Gerhard Schröder, had decided. In Austria, there is a fierce anti-atomic lobby, the ban on nuclear energy having long been raised to the rank of constitutional principle. (E.H./transl.jl)