Taxonomy regulation – role for nuclear

On 7 February, the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union published a document on the topic of a “proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the establishment of a framework to facilitate sustainable investment”. The document indicates that on 5 February, the Permanent Representatives Committee confirmed the agreement reached with the European Parliament and suggested to the Council to adopt a political agreement on the text of the Regulation. Now, the Council’s position at first reading will be communicated to the European Parliament with a view to approval by the Plenary without amendment in second reading. The letter also includes several Member States’ statements for inclusion in the minutes of the Council.

The Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia underlined in their joint statement that all these countries “consider nuclear energy as a sustainable and safe energy source in the long term” and “the maintaining of current nuclear capacities and their future development, while respecting the high safety and security standards, is the basic precondition for reaching climate neutrality not only in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia, but also at the EU level. This is confirmed also by IPCC and international energy organizations and reflected in the documents of the Commission as well”.

On the other hand, Austria – in its statement – highlighted that “any taxonomy that would allow for nuclear power to be qualified as sustainable, or even as a “transition” or “enabling activity”, would be inherently flawed and could give rise to severe criticism, as it would send the wrong signals and incentives to financial market participants and investors”.