Dear reader,
Should hydrogen from nuclear power be counted towards the renewables targets? That’s exactly what France and some other countries demanded. But yesterday, the energy ministers rejected this idea and removed the project from the general orientation of the gas market directive. In return, the Commission signaled a concession on another level regarding nuclear power. Read more in the feature by Manuel Berkel.
Passenger cars and light commercial vehicles must be carbon-neutral from 2035. Yesterday, there was actually a decision: Germany abandoned its blockade position in the Council of Ministers in return for a compromise on e-fuels. Lukas Scheid reports on how the Commission intends to ensure that combustion vehicles can only be refueled with e-fuels.
What’s next for the EU’s China policy? Ursula von der Leyen will spell this out tomorrow in a keynote speech. Informed sources say that she wants to rebalance the relationship with Beijing. Not a US-style decoupling but a targeted reduction of dependencies on critical technologies and raw materials. Europe had better not rely on the goodwill of President Xi Jinping. The Commission President is also likely to announce concrete measures. The Commission is working on a proposal to make investments by European companies in security-relevant sectors in third countries subject to approval.
Yesterday, negotiators from the European Parliament and the Council agreed on a different tool: the anti-coercion instrument is intended to protect EU states from coercive economic measures more effectively, especially those taken by Beijing. Amelie Richter analyzes the details.
Feature
Commission promises standards for new nuclear reactors
The EU energy ministers had to negotiate a controversial package solution yesterday. After Germany had pushed the other states ahead on e-fuels, the dispute over France’s wish to count nuclear energy towards the EU’s renewables targets came to a head yesterday. Immediately before the Council, the two camps thus met in two separate rounds.
France’s Energy Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher called a renewed meeting of her February nuclear coalition. Meanwhile, her counterparts gathered around her Austrian counterpart, Leonore Gewessler. Representatives from ten other countries – including Germany – came together under the slogan “renewable means renewable” to agree on a common counter-position for the negotiations.
France wants funding for nuclear power plants
In addition to industrial cooperation, France and its allies are primarily concerned with “mobilizing financial resources,” according to a joint results paper of the pro-nuclear 13. France’s state-owned EDF, in particular, is in urgent need of fresh billions.
- Hydrogen
- Natural gas
- Nuclear power
- Power
- Renewable energies
- Power
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