EU energy ministers spar over nuclear power’s green credentials

Good morning. In the early hours of this morning the EU agreed a powerful new trade defence tool which will allow Brussels to retaliate against moves such as China’s block on Lithuanian imports last year. And yesterday, the first batch of German Leopard 2 tanks arrived in Ukraine.

Today, I preview the EU’s next round of clashes over whether nuclear energy should be treated as being equal to renewables. And our Warsaw bureau chief explains the enjeux of the forthcoming Slovak elections.

Atomic fallout

A proposal by France to treat nuclear energy as equivalent to renewables is unlikely to be agreed in today’s energy ministers’ meeting, but the French fight to get a green stamp for their nuclear reactors does not end here.

Context: France is pushing for nuclear energy to be recognised as a low-carbon energy source and to count towards the EU’s planned target of producing 40 per cent of energy from renewable sources by 2030. Nuclear power plants generated around two-thirds of France’s electricity output in 2022.

Countries such as Germany and Austria argue such a move would undermine efforts to expand solar, wind and other renewable power sources that count towards the target.

The file on the ministers’ agenda today regards new rules for gas infrastructure, including hydrogen. This fuel can be made from solar and wind energy — and called renewable — or with nuclear power, defined as low-carbon hydrogen under the rules.

Paris has proposed low-carbon hydrogen to be counted towards countries’ renewable targets. In the latest version of the gas text seen by the Financial Times, the paragraph had been deleted, though a final agreement had not been reached yet, EU diplomats said last night.

“There is a minority of member states that requests that nuclear would be counted towards the renewable targets, and there is another minority that is against,” said a senior EU diplomat.

Before the meeting, both the pro and contra nuclear camps are having breakfast to formulate strategies, according to the diplomats.

The Swedish presidency, which is mediating the negotiations, aims for a deal today.

Even if the French proposal is taken out, the nuclear debate will continue during negotiations between the European parliament and the member states tomorrow over the so-called Renewable Energy Directive, which concerns the renewables target itself.

One solution that was discussed, according to diplomats, is for hydrogen made from nuclear power to be allowed to count only in part towards the countries’ targets.

Opening the renewables package this late in the negotiations is not popular with everyone, however, especially after a similar German move in already-concluded talks on combustion engines plunged Brussels into turmoil.

“If you allow this, especially after the combustion engine issue, it threatens legal certainty in the future,” an EU diplomat said.

Chart du jour: Churning it out

Advances in high-profile fields like quantum technology and genomics have allowed China to compete with the US and European countries on scientific output. But experts are worried that some of the research might be fraudulent.

You again

Slovakia’s president Zuzana Čaputová has warned that disinformation during the campaign for the parliamentary election could derail the country’s support for Ukraine, as a populist former premier is leading the polls, writes Raphael Minder.

Context: Former premier Robert Fico is staging a comeback on a populist pro-Russian platform, tapping into resentment among Slovaks about high inflation that he also blames on sanctions against Russia. Moscow was the key supplier of gas and oil to Slovakia before the war.

Čaputová said on Monday that voter frustration and disinformation were threatening Slovakia’s foreign policy. “Misinformation and misinterpretation are being used to reduce public support for the actions we are taking as a country,” she told a conference.

Fico responded on Facebook that Slovakia needed to replace Čaputová.

Slovakia’s recent decision to send MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine without parliamentary approval has given Fico and other opposition lawmakers more fodder to claim that Slovakian sovereignty is being threatened by pressure from Nato and the EU to support Ukraine.

According to pollsters, about 16 per cent of voters intend to back Fico’s party Smer, slightly more than Hlas, the centre-left party founded by Peter Pellegrini, another former premier. Fico picked Pellegrini as his successor in 2018 when he was pushed out amid mass protests against corruption following the murder of journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée.

But winning the vote does not necessarily seal the deal for Fico, as coalition talks are likely to follow the September 30 elections. Pellegrini himself has explicitly ruled out collaborating with his former mentor.

“I think the trend now shows Fico is heading for a win in the election, but the big question is who would be willing to go into government with him,” says Slovak analyst Milan Nič from the German Council on Foreign Relations.

What to watch today

1. Energy ministers meet in Brussels.

2. Charles Michel in Moldova to meet president Maia Sandu.

3. Another day of nationwide strikes in France

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