EU internal market commissioner backs nuclear development, tells French lawmakers

France has long lobbied for investment in nuclear energy to be considered green, making it possible to use nuclear power to reduce CO2 emissions. The country is also working to create the conditions for further development of nuclear capacity. Paris is therefore frustrated by the ambivalent position of nuclear energy in the EU Net-Zero Industry Act, which the Commission presented two months ago. Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton has now reiterated his support for nuclear energy to French lawmakers, calling it a promising sector and a means of decarbonising the EU, Euractiv reports.

In mid-March, the European Commission presented a proposal for the Net-Zero Industry Act (NZIA). The text was adopted in response to the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Like its American counterpart, the document identifies technologies that will benefit from financial and regulatory tools to support their development.

The NZIA is intended to help strengthen Europe’s manufacturing capacity for net-zero technologies and overcome barriers to expanding production capacity in Europe. The measures included in the regulation will boost the competitiveness of the industrial base for net-zero technologies and improve the EU’s energy resilience. For France, however, the document’s approach to nuclear energy is problematic.