The European Nuclear Energy Alliance, which met on Monday 16 June alongside the Energy Council in Luxembourg (see EUROPE 13660/5), has urged the European Commission in a letter to improve access to EU funding for nuclear projects. It proposes a series of recommendations developed by the Alliance’s working group on financing.
The signatory countries (Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Hungary, the Netherlands, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Sweden) regret that, despite the Alliance’s numerous calls for technological neutrality in the EU legislative framework, nuclear projects are still excluded from several EU funds and financing instruments.
Such a situation “could constitute a significant obstacle for Member States seeking to launch and further develop ambitious nuclear programmes, as part of their efforts to decarbonise and ensure energy security”, write the thirteen Member States.
More specifically, they ask the Commission to provide a written analysis of its legal interpretation of the relationship between the Euratom Treaty and other EU horizontal treaties, including the applicability of the lex specialis principle to programmes and horizontal funds for nuclear projects. According to them, this principle is invoked to deny any treaty other than the Euratom treaty competence over nuclear-related policies.
Secondly, the thirteen countries call on the Commission to speed up notification procedures for State aid to the nuclear sector as a matter of priority, providing indicative timetables based “on the most ambitious cases of nuclear State aid in the past”.
They are also asking it to help unblock access to private finance for nuclear projects, and in particular to mobilise the European Investment Bank (EIB) more to minimise the risks involved in financing these projects.
The Alliance also regrets that the activities included in the taxonomy are limited. More broadly, it believes that “considering nuclear energy as a sustainable activity would greatly contribute to attracting private financing needed to develop the sector, including the value chain and fuel cycle, with significant social and economic benefits for the entire EU economy”.
To see the letter: https://aeur.eu/f/hd2 (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)