European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has acknowledged that the bloc’s nuclear phase-out was a “strategic mistake”.
The EU’s decades-long retreat from nuclear energy was a “strategic mistake,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has admitted, stating the bloc must now rebuild the industry.
Speaking at the Nuclear Energy Summit in Paris on Tuesday, von der Leyen noted that nuclear’s share of EU electricity production has collapsed from one-third in 1990 to just 15% today.
“In retrospect, we see that it was a strategic mistake for Europe to turn its back on a reliable and affordable source of low-emission power,” she declared.
Von der Leyen has announced a €200 million ($230 million) guarantee fund to support small modular reactors (SMRs), aiming for operational deployment by 2030. “The nuclear race is on,” she said, claiming that “Europe has everything it needs to lead.”
Her remarks come as the escalating situation in the Middle East spurred by the unprovoked US-Israeli attack on Iran has sent global oil and gas prices surging. Simultaneously, the EU has continued to struggle with the consequences of its decision to sever energy ties with Russia following the Ukraine conflict, as well as its controversial green energy policies.
In Germany, which shuttered its last three nuclear plants in 2023, Chancellor Friedrich Merz has similarly condemned the phase-out a “serious strategic mistake,” noting in January that Berlin now faces “the most expensive energy transition in the entire world.” A recent JPMorgan analysis found that industrial power prices in Germany are now triple those of the US and China.
A Deloitte report commissioned by the European chemical industry also found that 83% of EU competitiveness indicators are stagnating or deteriorating, with the chemical sector alone having lost 20,000 jobs to factory closures.
The EU’s energy policies have repeatedly come under fire from both within and outside the bloc. Former Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki called Brussels’ 2040 climate targets “suicide of the European economy,” while Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has warned that unless the bloc lifts sanctions on Russian energy, it will “deal an extremely deep blow to the European economy.”
Image credit: Lucas Lehotsky
The bl**dy woman has a nerve !!
She is head of the european commission and represent foremost the interests of the ” krauts”, other countries being second. She seems to have forgottent that it were the german ” Geen” who insisted on the break off of all european nuclear power grids after Fukushima , even a french one situated at the german border and still functioning perfectly.
Thorium reactors are the best current system.
The biggest mistake was putting gimps like Ursula Fond Of Lying and her deluded side-kick Kaja Kallas in charge of anything, not to mention allowing the WEF to dictate policies.
New Zealanders have still got their heads in the sand when it comes to nuclear power. The government would rather spend $1 billion building a holding tank for LNG on the off chance of experiencing a dry year.
No thought into putting nuclear powered small modular reactors at Tiwai Point to generate electricity for the aluminium smelter. This would allow the electricity generated at Lake Manapouri to feed into the National Grid.
Better still dump the foreign owned, government subsidised smelter.