On Tuesday 13 July, EU Finance Ministers held an initial exchange of views on the European Commission’s revised sustainable finance strategy (see EUROPE 12756/15) and the proposal for a voluntary European standard on ‘green’ bonds (see EUROPE 12756/14), put forward on 6 July. But it was the inclusion of nuclear power in the EU’s sustainable finance taxonomy (see EUROPE 12703/2) that dominated the debate.
Overall, the Member States welcomed the Commission’s new proposals, indicating that they still needed more time to scrutinise them.
France in particular supported the establishment of minimum standards for financial products that are ambitious in terms of social and environmental responsibility, the creation of rating criteria, and the strengthening of the component linked to the financing of the transition.
The Netherlands called on the Commission to prioritise improving the integration of sustainability risks into financial supervision and their inclusion in reporting and accounting standards.
With regard to the proposed voluntary ‘EU Green Bond Standard’, Italy expressed concerns that aligning the EU standard exclusively with the EU taxonomy would, in its view, lead to market fragmentation in the short term, as markets currently implement other standards.
In the same vein, Germany insisted on the need to ensure that ‘green’ bonds that have already been issued remain protected.
However, the issue of including nuclear power in the taxonomy was soon raised by several Member States, reviving old divisions in the ECOFIN Council.
“We must be aware that a credible Green Bond standard requires the taxonomy to credible as well”, said the delegate for Denmark, a country which does not consider nuclear power to be a sustainable renewable energy source.
“It is important that the taxonomy that we have is ambitious and credible. The potential inclusion of nuclear energy in the taxonomy by qualifying as not significantly harming the environment would undermine this credibility”, said Luxembourg’s Finance Minister, Pierre Gramegna.
Spain, Austria and Germany also voiced their opposition to the inclusion of nuclear energy in the taxonomy.
Conversely, France, Hungary, Finland, Romania, Slovakia, Poland and Bulgaria asked the European Commission to adopt its complementary delegated act including nuclear energy in the EU taxonomy “as soon as possible”, as the Commission’s in-house scientific service - the Joint Research Centre (JRC) - has submitted its report on this issue (see EUROPE 12688/5).
These countries recalled that the JRC had concluded that there was “no scientific evidence that nuclear energy is more harmful to human health or the environment than other electricity generation technologies already included in the taxonomy”.
Notably, France considered that this analysis should be relied upon and asked the European Commission to present its supplementary delegated act before September. “Any further delay would be unacceptable for France”, said the French delegate.
On the contrary, in Germany’s view, the JRC report is unconvincing and has neglected several aspects, including the risk of disaster posed by nuclear power, and the issue of nuclear waste storage.
At the end of the meeting, EU Financial Services Commissioner Mairead McGuinness assured the Member States that work was underway on the inclusion of nuclear, and that a text would be produced in the autumn. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)