15 Oct (NucNet): The Visegrad Four (V4) group of countries, which consists of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, supports nuclear energy and wants the European Union to help central Europe increase its nuclear capacity rather than hinder it, Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orban has said.
Mr Orban said after a meeting of the V4 prime ministers in Budapest that every country had the right to produce energy from the sources they chose.
He said this meant the EU should not “over-regulate this area” and should rethink state subsidies for energy investment because nuclear energy is discriminated against.
Last week the European Commission said it had decided to exclude nuclear energy from new guidelines set to be adopted in 2014 on state aid for energy and environmental protection.
An EC spokesman said: “We are not talking about the possibility of whether nuclear energy should receive aid or not. We are not talking about encouraging or discouraging member states on nuclear energy.”
State aid is prohibited under the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. Nevertheless, state aid can be allowed if it is for “services of general economic interest” and as long as it does not distort competition in such a way as to be against the public interest.
The V4 group‘s prime ministers also called for consolidation of cooperation in energy security, including nuclear energy and shale gas. Poland’s prime minister Donald Tusk said the V4 would be “united in moves designed to ensure the energy security of the region and the entire EU”.
There are 14 commercially operational reactors in the V4 countries: six in the Czech Republic, four in Hungary and four in Slovakia. Poland has announced plans to have its first reactor online by 2020 followed by a second some five years later.
The V4 group has established a centre of excellence, known as the V4G4, for joint research, development and innovation in Generation-IV nuclear reactors.
