Nucleareurope responds to consultation on EU funds

On 26 September 2023, nucleareurope responded to a European Commission mid-term evaluation consultation of the European Regional Development Fund, Cohesion Fund and Just Transition Fund for 2021-2027. In its response, the association emphasised the importance of making funds available to the entire nuclear cycle. 

In this respect, we welcomed the opportunity to respond to this public consultation, which comes at a time when the EU is looking to set up a Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP) through which it will use existing funds to help support certain technologies. The three funds covered by the consultation are expected to fall under the umbrella of STEP, in addition to several others.

Nucleareurope therefore called for these three funds to be amended in order to render nuclear power plants eligible for these funds. Indeed, for the time being, all three funds exclude ‘the decommissioning or the construction of nuclear power stations’. In terms of justification, we stressed the importance of aligning EU funds with the outcomes of the EU’s Sustainable Finance taxonomy and current discussions regarding the Net Zero Industry Act. In addition, we noted that the European Commission itself has emphasized the benefits which Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) could bring and thus called for SMRs to also be eligible for EU funds.

Nucleareurope members are encouraged to also respond to this public consultation which remain open until 9 October 2023. For more information, our response can be found here.