Brussels, 19/05/2011 (Agence Europe) - At midnight, on Wednesday 18 May, the European Commission and the European Nuclear Safety Regulators Group (ENSREG) had still not reached a compromise on criteria for the stress tests on the 143 nuclear reactors operating in the EU. Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger therefore sought to break the deadlock in talks at a meeting during Thursday afternoon, in Prague, with the Slovenian president of ENSREG, Andrej Stritar, and other regulators, on the sidelines of the nuclear forum. Cited by Reuters in the late afternoon, Oettinger gave his assurance that most of the problems had been settled, and that the Commission and ENSREG had just “two or three” issues to clear up in coming days. After two days of talks, a compromise was tabled on 13 May disassociating nuclear power station safety in the face of natural disasters and accident from nuclear safety in the face of terrorist action, cyber-attacks or air crashes. The compromise would also be based on the constitution of a working group composed of member state and Commission experts, for which the format and the working methods have still to be finalised. It is said the German and Austrian regulators still have reservations, and that Commissioner Oettinger is not pleased with the wording proposed. (E.H./transl.jl)