On Tuesday 19 December, the member countries of the Nuclear Alliance met on the fringes of the Energy Council in Brussels. The 12 member countries (excluding the Netherlands during the election period) and two observers, Belgium and Italy (see EUROPE 13289/7), have set out their priorities for nuclear power generation in order to meet the EU’s climate objectives.
Nuclear Alliance countries
The European Energy Ministers of the Alliance first discussed the issues of including nuclear power and the principle of “technological neutrality” in the political priorities of the next European Commission.
“COP 28 recognised nuclear power as an essential energy source for reducing our greenhouse gas emissions and achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. We now need to translate this approach into European legislation”, explained the French Minister for Ecological Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher.
The Ministers of the Alliance also consider that the European Commission should adopt measures to simplify and broaden access to European funds, in particular via the Innovation Fund, for projects using nuclear technologies, according to their joint communiqué.
The Alliance also discussed European Commissioner Kadri Simson’s proposal to create a Small Modular Reactor (SMR) Industrial Alliance (see EUROPE 13287/12) to agree on common working bases to accelerate innovation and industrialisation of these reactors.
Asked about this when she arrived at the Council, the Commissioner said that the EU could be at the forefront of this technology. “Indeed, other regions of the world are currently working on research and our companies have promising technological solutions. So we will be helping them to make progress in their development”, she insisted.
To see the Nuclear Alliance’s joint communiqué: https://aeur.eu/f/a6o
Friends of Renewables countries
At the same time, the Austrian Energy Minister, Leonore Gewessler, explained that the “Friends of Renewables” (see EUROPE 13277/15) had drawn up a joint position paper submitted to the Commissioner for Energy calling for “accelerated and ambitious development of renewable energies in Europe”.
The Austrian Minister welcomed the Wind Power Action Plan recently presented by the Commission (see EUROPE 13278/5), but explained that the EU also needed action plans for solar power and heat pumps. “We need to drive forward the development of renewable energies as a whole. That’s why we need a strong alliance at European level”, she concluded.
Also questioned on the subject, the German Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, Sven Giegold, justified the need for cooperation between countries to boost renewable energies, adding that “this is not, a priori, in contradiction with the technological choices of other Member States, which we rather believe to be a costly experiment”.
To see the joint communiqué from the Friends of Renewables: https://aeur.eu/f/a6n (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)