Nuclear energy fuels hot debate among MEPs
The nuclear renaissance comes as a reaction to EU climate change and energy security fears (Photo: wikipedia)
RENATA GOLDIROVA
10.05.2007 @ 09:27 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – MEPs have called on EU leaders to review the union's atomic treaty, Euratom, with many claiming the European Parliament must be given power to oversee the sensitive area, and others hoping to halt what they see as a nuclear renaissance in the bloc.
The moves are being debated as European legislators are set to vote today (10 May) on a report assessing the 50-year-old Euratom treaty, which paved the way to European nuclear cooperation.
The draft report, prepared by Lithuanian MEP Eugenijus Maldeikis from the rightist UEN group, calls for "adjustments" to the treaty to "restore the institutional imbalance in favour of parliament, which should be accorded a co-decision power in the nuclear field."
"We face the problem of democratic deficit," Mr Maldeikus said during the parliamentary debate yesterday, but he defended the 1957 legal document. Green MEPs, on the other hand, want to scrap the whole treaty.
According to Austrian green MEP Johannes Voggenhuber, the Euratom treaty is "a futuristic poem, which half of the EU states are not interested in." "The consensus from 1957 is not there anymore", he said.
Euratom – drawn up by Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands half a century ago – sees nuclear power as an answer to the general shortage of conventional energy and for providing energy independence.
But in the Europe of today, with 27 member states, the issue has become a hot potato with strong divisions between those that support nuclear power and those that want to reduce the EU's dependence on it entirely.
"We must have a Euratom conference before a new nuclear reactor is built in the EU," German green MEP Rebecca Harms said.
The climate change debate
Ms Harms accused proponents of nuclear fission of "trying to jump on the climate change bandwagon to resuscitate nuclear power after decades of stagnation," adding "some UN climate change strategists, as well as parts of the European Commission, have also bought into the nuclear lobby's arguments."
The green MEP cited a study, stating there are thousands of incidents in nuclear installations each year. France's utility EDF annually reports up to 800 significant events to the nuclear safety authorities, while in Germany it is up to 140 events, according to the paper.
"Promoting nuclear as a sustainable energy source is misleading," Ms Harms concluded.
But according to Spanish conservative MEP Alejo Vidal-Quadras "ideological differences would lead us to economic and environmental suicide," as EU nuclear industry provides roughly 400,000 jobs and is a way of avoiding some 312 million tonnes of CO2 per year, amounting to 7 percent of the EU's total greenhouse gas emissions.
Lithuania's Mr Maldeikis, himself a strong advocate of nuclear power, added "the absence of Euratom would lead to the renationalisation of nuclear policy in Europe and cause legal uncertainty for all of the 27 member states".
Currently, 15 member states have nuclear power stations, amounting to 145 nuclear power reactors operating on EU territory, while an additional five are under construction – in Finland, France, Bulgaria and Romania.
In six EU countries – Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Lithuania, Slovakia and Sweden - nuclear power provides 40 percent or more of total electricity generation. Altogether, 32 percent of the bloc's electricity is of nuclear origin.
EU-wide safety rules
So far, safety seems to be the only aspect of the debate where MEPs across the entire political spectrum sing from the same hymnbook.
"There is an urgent need to draw up robust legislation at community level in the fields of nuclear safety, the management of radioactive waste and the decommissioning of nuclear plants," Mr Maldeikis says in his report, with the parliament's main political groups claiming they are in favour of Brussels serving as an umbrella.
According to Austrian conservative MEP Paul Ruebig "the safety standards should be legally binding, enforced by the European court and possibly leading to a shut-down of a nuclear power plant."
The most recent attempt to set up EU-wide safety rules dates back to 2002, but this piece of legislation has not moved further since, as EU capitals are reluctant to let Brussels move into this area.
Currently, the European Commission has a say only when it comes to accession countries, as was in the case of Slovakia, Lithuania and Bulgaria - all forced to shut down Soviet-era nuclear reactors.
The own-initiative report by the Lithuanian MEP - scheduled for vote later today - will have no legal consequences but Mr Maldeikis "hopes it will help overcome hesitation and open up a pragmatic EU-wide debate" on one of the bloc's touchiest issues.