Geen subsidies voor verwerking nucleair afval!

• 2004-09-20

De Europese Groene fractie vraagt de Europese Commissie de subsidiëring van de verwerking van nucleair afval niet toe te staan. Een en ander toont aan dat nucleaire energie economisch niet leefbaar is.

Multi-billion nuclear state aid:
Commission should reject UK nuclear bailout

The Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament today condemned Energy Commissioner Loyola de Palacio's attempts to persuade the Commission to accept a multi-billion plan to subsidise British Energy (BE), a de facto bankrupt company. Vice-President de Palacio is proposing to use the unreformed and undemocratic Euratom Treaty to justify a whole new chapter of subsidies to the nuclear industry namely for waste management.

Nuclear power plants generate waste that must be processed decades after their reactors are closed. To pay for these activities generating companies are supposed to put aside a percentage of their revenue. In the UK, which has the oldest reactors in Europe, it has now become clear that insufficient funds have been put aside and the Government is now proposing to bailout these waste management activities. If approved, other nuclear operators in Europe will demand similar financial assistance for their waste management activities.

British Energy ran into huge financial difficulties in 2002. A proposal from the UK government for state aid of at least €6 billion, to pay for on-going operating costs and for much of the huge nuclear decommissioning costs over the remainder of this century, is on the Commission's agenda for possible approval on Wednesday 22 September.

Claude Turmes, Green MEP for Luxembourg and former Rapporteur on the directive on the liberalisation of the electricity market, said:

"British Energy's de facto bankruptcy is clear proof that nuclear power is uneconomic and must be exempted from normal electricity market rules to be able to survive. This is totally unacceptable. If the Commission approve this proposal it will cause not only an enormous distortion and unfair competition in the UK market but also will set a precedent for the entire internal European energy market. It will also create a special protection zone for nuclear power from which the other energy sources are excluded."

"There are other good reasons for the Commission to reject the proposed restructuring plan. Firstly, the high costs resulting from the state aid will eventually be paid by the taxpayer. Secondly, it will make it more – rather than less – difficult to combat oligopolistic market distortions as nuclear utilities who misuse their decommissioning funds for market acquisitions jeopardise the funding of future waste management projects. Lastly, it will further undermine the relationships between the EU institutions. The Parliament has consistently called for measures to reform the Euratom Treaty and for action on decommissioning funds, and the Commission is once again in danger of supporting big business at the expense of disregarding the views of the Parliament (1)."

"The state aid rules must be applied to all sectors. Just because nuclear power is not economically viable, does not mean that it should be exempt from market rules. We urge Monti and other Commissioners not to fall again into de Palacio's dangerous trap."

(1) Inter-institutional statement (OJ L176/56; 15.7.2003): ‘The European Parliament, the Council and the Commission underline the need for Member States to ensure that adequate financial resources for decommissioning and waste management activities, which are audited in Member States, are actually available for the purpose for which they have been established and are managed in a transparent way, thus avoiding obstacles to fair competition in the energy market'.