Nuclear vs renewables: Two camps clash in Brussels

(EurActiv, 30 Mar 2023) EU energy ministers were divided into two camps at the EU Council meeting on Tuesday (28 March): the pro-nuclear alliance, which includes France and 10 other member states, and the “renewable friendly” group, composed of 10 EU states.

At an EU summit in February, France set up an ‘alliance’ of pro-nuclear countries, with Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.

Ahead of a meeting of EU energy ministers on Tuesday (28 March), French Energy Transition Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher reconvened the group in Brussels.

These countries have now “fully recognised that nuclear is a strategic technology for achieving climate neutrality”, according to a joint press release – a reference to the European Commission’s Net-Zero Industry Act, which did not mention nuclear among the “strategic” technologies to reach the EU’s climate goals.

New allies

Tuesday’s meeting organised by France included two new “observers”: Italian Energy Minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin and his Belgian counterpart Tinne Van der Straeten.

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EurActiv, 30 Mar 2023: Nuclear vs renewables: Two camps clash in Brussels