Nuclear energy polarizes the EU: France announces new reactors while Spain and Austria threaten to take their “green label” to court
by dipeshbardoliagmail-com
Partners yes, but with diametrically opposed points of view. The debate on sustainable energy and, in particular, the role that gas and nuclear power should play is polarizing Europe. That in the club of 27 there were supporters and detractors of being awarded the “green label” has been known for a long time, but the positions seem to have tensed in the last week after the decision of the European Commission (EC) to include both options — both nuclear and natural gas — on a list that would give them access to investments in renewables.
It is no longer an exchange of arguments, a verbal tug-of-war or movements to favor one position or another — after all, the Commission’s decision still has a long way to go to become official — , but rather actions. Or roadmaps, at least. And to show a button: while Austria has already announced its intention to denounce the EC resolution before the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU), a path that Spain values following with an appeal; France is dedicated to announcing the creation of new reactors and that will lengthen the life of those you already have.
Beyond the strategy that each country chooses in its territory, at stake, at the community level, is a mechanism that can facilitate financing and seeks, precisely, to attract investment towards projects in the energy sector that can be considered sustainable.
The last movement in that dance — one in which the European partners seem to occupy increasingly distant positions in the room — has been given by the French Executive. His president, Emmanuel Macron, has just made public his intention to bet heavily on nuclear power. Moreover, the energy plan that he has drawn up for 2050, with which he wants France to achieve independence from fossil fuels, largely revolves around wind and nuclear power. The president’s roadmap contemplates the construction of six new generation EPR2 reactors, to which eight more could be added in the future. Not only that. As long as they meet the security criteria, he wants to keep the current 12.
diametrically opposed positions
Macron’s approach coincides with that of the state electricity company EDF, which has proposed to the French Government the construction of half a dozen EPR reactors between 2035 and 2037 with an investment of around 50,000 million to replace the 12 nuclear plants that, a priori, They will close in the middle of the next decade. At the end of last year, the president himself revealed his desire to relaunch the nuclear power plants, although without going into details. Now publicly redoubles the bet and, during a visit to the Belfort plant, just a few days ago he advocated that the country “take up the thread of the great adventure of civil nuclear energy” by combining it with renewables.
In addition to the community framework, his words must be understood in the context of French politics itself. Although Macron is not yet an official candidate, in a matter of eight weeks he will face the first round of the presidential elections. In any case, he is not the only one betting on nuclear power in France. Moreover, in a certain way his position — which has changed substantially over time — is maintained in a balance between the right, a firm supporter of focusing the bet on the reactors; and that of the ecologists and the left of Jean Luc-Mélenchon, who advocate leaving it behind.
The position is diametrically opposite in other parts of the EU. At the beginning of February, the Austrian Minister for the Environment, the ecologist Leonore Gewessler, condemned the fact that the EC is doing a “greenwash” of atomic energy and advanced that her Executive plans to take the Commission’s decision before the CJEU. “We have always said that if the European Commission continues down this path, Austria will take legal action”, pointed out Gewessler already at the end of January.
Not alone. Even before the EC decision was known, Luxembourg also claimed to be ready to take the dispute to court. In the same club of non-conformists are Denmark and Spain, contrary to the energy classification proposed by the EC.
Just a week ago, the Third Vice President and Minister of Ecological Transition of Spain, Teresa Ribera, recognized that the central Executive values presenting an appeal before the European justice. “It requires a legal analysis. Politically we have it perfectly clear, ”said the socialist. What she did firmly announce is that, unlike what is happening in France, her team is not willing to move to encourage nuclear power. During an interview with Ràdio4 and La2 she made it clear that the Government will not finance new plants or gas infrastructure.
As a background is the processing of the proposal of the European Commission, which could still be knocked down if certain requirements were met, such as that during its vote in the European Parliament it received the rejection of 353 MEPs or if at least twenty countries were opposed representing at least 65% of the population of the entire Union.
Already in the longer term is the other great reference and ultimate objective of the EU: the kill that the countries have set for themselves to achieve climate neutrality by 2050, an objective that — according to some voices, such as that of the European Commissioner for the Internal Market , Frenchman Thierry Breton — will hardly be able to achieve if they decide to do without nuclear energy. In fact, the EC itself presents nuclear and gas as “bridges” and clarifies that they must meet certain requirements.
Pictures | Rodrigo Gómez Sanz (Flickr) and Jeanne Menjoulet (Flickr)
