Brussels, 24/05/2002 (Agence Europe) - On Friday, Commissioner de Palacio welcomed the vote in the Finnish Parliament in favour of the construction of a fifth nuclear power plant. "Finland is an example in the management of radio-active waste (…) and has launched itself into a realistic and reasonable policy for the storage by going for the option of burying the waste (…). The technologies that it has developed on the treatment of waste are the most advanced in Europe", she declared. …/..
Announcing concrete proposals on the treatment and transfer of radioactive waste, as well as a Community approach to nuclear safety, the Commissioner stressed "the quality of the debate that has just taken place in Finland" and that she would lie to hear it "throughout Europe". The news does not however have unanimous approval, as the European Parliament's Green/EFA Group deplores the Finnish vote, like Marialiese Flemming (Austrian, EPP-ED) who considers that "Finland has given a wrong signal".