Eleven countries, including France, call on the EU to no longer discriminate against nuclear power

A group bringing together 11 EU member countries, including France, on Tuesday, December 19, called on the next European Commission to put nuclear energy on an equal footing with renewables in order to achieve the carbon neutrality objective of the continent in 2050.

Another group of 11 countries, around Germany, simultaneously called for an acceleration of renewable energies, highlighting European divisions on this strategic subject.

"The next Commission (...) should launch a broad review of financing options, including those from the European Investment Bank, for projects and technologies contributing to our goal of carbon neutrality, without any form of discrimination between "fossil-free energy alternatives", demanded the Nuclear Alliance, which includes, in addition to France, Bulgaria, Croatia, Finland, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia and Sweden .

“The Commission should adopt measures to simplify and broaden access to European funds and (...) enable the financing of innovative projects using nuclear technologies, including for the production of low-carbon hydrogen,” they said. asked these countries which have decided to rely on the atom to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

After the European elections in June, a new EU executive will be appointed for a five-year term.

"Today, the members of the Nuclear Alliance adopted a text to ask the Commission to treat nuclear energy and renewable energy on an equal footing, for all future European texts", is congratulated by the French Minister of Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, who met her counterparts on Tuesday in Brussels.

Alongside this call, a group of 11 other countries called for the acceleration of the deployment of renewable energy in the EU and presented a series of proposals.

These states, led by Germany, are asking in particular to develop the interconnections of electricity networks between European countries and to develop an internal energy market including renewable hydrogen.

They called for supporting the rise of renewable energy in neighboring countries and creating "green energy corridors" to connect them to the EU. In addition to Germany, this group, called Friends of Renewables, includes Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands and Portugal.