France wants funding for nuclear power plants - and Germany will switch off in two weeks

The EU energy ministers rejected France's request to count hydrogen from nuclear energy towards the renewables targets.

There is a concession in the new reactor standards.

This analysis is available to IPPEN.MEDIA as part of a cooperation with the Europe.Table Professional Briefing - Europe.Table first published it on March 29, 2023.

Brussels – The EU energy ministers had to negotiate a controversial package solution yesterday.

After Germany had pushed the other states ahead of it on e-fuels, the dispute over France's desire to include nuclear energy in the EU's renewables targets came to a head on Tuesday.

The two camps therefore met in two different rounds immediately before the Council.

France's energy minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher had convened another meeting of her nuclear coalition in February.

Meanwhile, her opponents gathered around her Austrian counterpart Leonore Gewessler.

Representatives of ten other countries - including Germany - came together under the motto "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”, as stated in a joint result paper from the nuclear-friendly Round of 13.

France's state-owned company EDF in particular is in urgent need of fresh billions.

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However, Pannier-Runacher's most important goal yesterday was a preliminary decision for today's trilogue, with which the amendment to the Renewable Energy Directive (RED) is to be sealed.

For this reason, the general orientation on the gas market package was shifted from the morning to the afternoon.

In earlier drafts, an attempt was made to regulate the gas market directive into the RED - and thus create a basis for being able to count nuclear energy retrospectively against the renewable targets in transport and in industry.

Council removes nuclear clause from gas directive

Finally, yesterday the Council removed the nuclear clause from the general approach to the gas market directive.

"Low-carbon hydrogen obtained with nuclear power is not recognized as renewable and the dubious bridge to RED is history," commented reporter Jens Geier (SPD) on his LinkedIn profile.

Working out a solution to the nuclear dispute was then up to the meeting of the Permanent Representatives on Wednesday and then the trialogue, where Parliament must also agree to the position.

Reporter Markus Pieper (CDU) expressed skepticism a few weeks ago.

According to Pieper, quotas for low-carbon hydrogen from nuclear energy should at most come on top of the goals for green hydrogen.

Commission announces EU standards for new nuclear reactors

Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson signaled a concession on a different level.

The Commission understood that the member states need guidelines for the use of small modular reactors (SMR) and EU-wide standards for this, she said in the evening press conference.

The Commission will therefore work with the nuclear industry and "deliver in this area".

The general direction on the gas market package received a mixed reception on Tuesday.

While the DIHK correctly stated that the gas network operators can initially also build and operate hydrogen networks, the operators expressed their opposition to the Council's position.

The association of municipal companies (VKU) announced that the council had spoken out in favor of separating the ownership of the hydrogen and gas network at the level of the distribution network.

This would make it almost impossible for many municipal utilities to initiate an investment-safe transformation of the infrastructure, said Managing Director Ingbert Liebing.

EU Energy Minister: 15 percent gas savings by March 2024

EU energy ministers also agreed to extend the EU's voluntary gas savings target to March 2024.

Introduced in August 2022, it would otherwise have expired on Friday under the previous emergency regulation.

Yesterday, however, the member states blocked mandatory tightening of reporting – such as sector-specific information on gas consumption.

Compared to a five-year reference period, the EU countries should continue to save 15 percent on gas.

Parliamentary State Secretary Franziska Brantner, who attended the meeting on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Economics, called it "good and important".

By January, the states had exceeded the target.

However, compared to last autumn, gas prices have fallen sharply, meaning that the financial incentive to save has weakened.

It is also questionable whether the next half of the winter will be as mild as the last.

Only recently did the commission show that even the gas supply could be endangered in the winter of 2024/25 if Russia cuts off its deliveries and no more gas is saved at all in the coming warm months.

By Manuel Berkel

List of rubrics: © Christophe Karaba /dpa