MEPs asked to celebrate the ‘importance of nuclear energy’

MEPs will next Monday (26 February) be asked to agree that nuclear power is essential in the fight against climate change and the struggle to secure energy supplies.

An own initiative report from Lithuanian MEP Eugenijus Maldeikis which will be discussed by the European Parliament’s environment committee, marks 50 years of the European Atomic Energy Community Treaty (Euratom).

The Maldeikis report is not legally binding but will send out an important message on support for nuclear power in Europe today.

The European Commission last month published a broad package of ideas for future EU energy policy. European leaders will decide how to follow up the energy package at the 8-9 March EU summit. Countries remain sharply divided over the importance that nuclear power should be given in the EU energy mix.

According to Maldeikis - a former economy minister and energy lecturer in Lithuania - nuclear power is at least as important now as it was when the founding EU countries signed the Euratom treaty alongside the Treaty of Rome in 1957.

These six signatories, the Union for a Europe of Nations (UEN) MEP points out in his report, "considered that nuclear energy constituted ‘the essential resource which would ensure the development and the renewal of production and will allow the progress of work on peace’".

A working document accompanying the report does not question member states’ right to choose their own energy mix, but says the importance of nuclear power is becoming clearer.

"Having regard to the growing need in energy and the dependence of the European Union from import carriers, evaluating climate change issues and the risk of supply perturbations, and ensuring electricity supply under competitive prices," explains Maldeikis, "nuclear energy shall be considered as a valuable and prioritised type of energy in the European Union."

The report and the working document also reject many of the most common criticisms of nuclear power. The security controls in Euratom are an internationally recognised success, says Maldeikis, while modern health and environmental safeguards leave no room for concern.

The working document also estimates that at least 85 years worth of the uranium needed for nuclear fusion can be found in politically stable countries.

A spokesman for the UEN said he did not expect MEPs to push for an unmanageable number of changes in the Maldeikis report. "I don’t think this will be one of those reports that has 1,000 amendments; we might get about 100," he predicted.

But MEPs are split fairly evenly into those who favour nuclear power and those who oppose it, the spokesman added, making it difficult to predict whether or not a pro-nuclear report will in the end be adopted.

The UEN has no official position on nuclear power, with Irish members opposed while Lithuanians, Poles and Latvians are generally in favour of its development.

Foratom, the nuclear industry association, said it welcomed the 50th anniversary of Euratom as a chance to discuss the future of the treaty.

Talks on the current role of Euratom were put on hold when the proposed EU constitution was rejected by France and the Netherlands. The constitution would have given the Parliament ‘co-decision’ voting rights on Euratom-linked policies, instead of the merely consultative powers it exercises today.

But conservationist have reacted angrily to drafts of the Maldeikis report. "I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a pro-nuclear text in the European Parliament," said Mark Johnston of Greenpeace.

"This is a shockingly controversial text which fails to present a balanced view of nuclear power," he added. "I would be surprised if it gets through Parliament in anything like its current form."

MEPs will next Monday (26 February) be asked to agree that nuclear power is essential in the fight against climate change and the struggle to secure energy supplies.