The European Commission opened, on Thursday 30 June, an in-depth investigation to assess whether public support that the Czech Republic plans to grant for the construction of a new nuclear power plant in Dukovany is in line with EU State aid rules.
The beneficiary of the aid would be Elektrárna Dukovany II (‘EDU II’), a company set up to carry out the project, which is fully owned by the ČEZ group (the main incumbent in the Czech Republic, with the government holding around 70% of the shares).
In March of 2022, the Czech Republic notified its plan to support the construction and operation of a new nuclear power plant in Dukovany, with an electricity generation capacity of up to 1200 MW. Dukovany is already the site of an existing nuclear power plant.
At this stage, based on its preliminary assessment, the Commission has found the project necessary and considers that the aid facilitates the development of an economic activity.
However, doubts remain as to whether the measure is fully in line with EU State aid rules. For this reason, the Commission has decided to open an in-depth investigation in relation to: - the appropriateness and proportionality of the three components of the measure; - whether there could have been other companies interested in acting as project promoter instead of ČEZ. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)