Press release

Nucleareurope welcomes technology neutral approach of Clean Industrial Deal

Feb 26, 2025 | Press Release

Brussels, 26 February 2025: nucleareurope welcomes the European Commission’s proposal for a Clean Industrial Deal (CID) and Action Plan for Affordable Energy published today, both of which pay significant attention to ensuring a technology neutral approach in line with our requests. As highlighted in the CID, access to affordable energy is key to the competitiveness of European industries and this will only be achieved by accelerating the transition to clean, domestically generated energy. Furthermore, it also stresses the importance of accelerating electrification.

“The proposals published today show a much greater willingness from the Commission to ensure technology neutrality in policy” highlights nucleareurope Director General, Yves Desbazeille. “Indeed, many of the ideas outlined in the two documents apply to both nuclear and renewables. We look forward to engaging with policymakers over the coming months with the goal of ensuring that the EU puts in place the right tools to strengthen its competitiveness” he adds.

According to the CID, the Action Plan for Affordable Energy will focus on the following with the goal of lowering energy bills and accelerating the roll-out of clean energy and electrification

Full implementation of the Electricity Market Design reform, particularly the use of Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) and Contracts for Difference (CfDs).
The launch of a technology neutral European Investment Bank pilot programme for corporate PPAs to be used for the long-term purchase of electricity generation.
Assess State Aid for nuclear supply chains and technologies.
Provide guidance to Member States on designing CfDs and their potential combination with PPAs.
Lowering of taxes on electricity and removal of non-energy related taxes in order to support energy intensive industries in particular.

The Action Plan itself includes the following more concrete measures such as assessing the possibility to streamline current permitting and licensing practices for the deployment of new nuclear energy technologies such as Small Modular Reactors. Whilst this is a positive step in the right direction, this potential should be extended to cover all nuclear projects. Furthermore, the proposal places significant attention on industrial consumers adjusting their demand to when clean energy is available, including promoting remuneration of flexibility in retail contracts. The reality is that some industries operate 24/7 and therefore simply cannot adjust in this way. As such, some form of remuneration should also be envisaged to compensate clean energy sources which are capable of meeting this demand for a constant supply of energy, such as nuclear.

About us: nucleareurope is the Brussels-based trade association for the nuclear energy industry in Europe.
The membership of nucleareurope is made up of 15 national nuclear associations and through these associations, nucleareurope represents nearly 3,000 European companies working in the industry and supporting around 1,100,000 jobs.

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