Friday

29th Mar 2024

British and French resistance to "nuclear package"

The European commission is on a collision course with Great Britain and France over its nuclear strategy. Loyola de Palacio, the energy commissioner, wants to propose at the beginning of November, a pooling of nuclear safety standards. The goal is to be able to control the candidate country nuclear power plants after they enter the European Union.

But the only way not to discriminate against new member states, would be to check the reactors in all member states. Austria is strongly for this given the controversy over the Czech nuclear power plant, Temelín.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Get the EU news that really matters

Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

The UK and France, however, see this as an encroachment of their national powers. "The resistance doesn’t come from the candidates," says sources in Brussels, according to Die Presse. "For them it was rather the past situation without reference values that was a problem." Currently, nuclear power plant safety standards in the EU are a purely national question.

If a nuclear power plant should fall short of the proposed new standards, the state concerned could be fined. That is one of the reasons, why above all Great Britain and France are against the plans. Another reason is that the two countries fears for the negative impact on their atomic industry.

Opinion

EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania

Among the largest sources of financing for energy transition of central and eastern European countries, the €60bn Modernisation Fund remains far from the public eye. And perhaps that's one reason it is often used for financing fossil gas projects.

Opinion

EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania

Among the largest sources of financing for energy transition of central and eastern European countries, the €60bn Modernisation Fund remains far from the public eye. And perhaps that's one reason it is often used for financing fossil gas projects.

Latest News

  1. Kenyan traders react angrily to proposed EU clothes ban
  2. Lawyer suing Frontex takes aim at 'antagonistic' judges
  3. Orban's Fidesz faces low-polling jitters ahead of EU election
  4. German bank freezes account of Jewish peace group
  5. EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania
  6. 'Swiftly dial back' interest rates, ECB told
  7. Moscow's terror attack, security and Gaza
  8. Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersJoin the Nordic Food Systems Takeover at COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersHow women and men are affected differently by climate policy
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  5. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  6. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?

Join EUobserver

EU news that matters

Join us