Antinuclear

Blow to nuclear projects as Brussels drops plan for subsidy rules, Ft.com By Alex Barker and Joshua Chaffin in Brussels   9 Oct 13

Nuclear power projects in Europe face a legally uncertain future after Brussels heeded German concerns and ditched plans to issue specific guidelines on permitted state subsidies.

In a blow to the UK, France and countries in central and eastern Europe eyeing new nuclear programmes, the European Commission decided informally on Tuesday to carry on investigating programmes on a case-by-case basis

This puts Britain in the uneasy position of acting as a test case for EU public subsidy rules on the next generation of nuclear plants when it seeks clearance from Brussels in the coming months.

The UK is offering various support mechanisms, including a guaranteed price for nuclear power and a financing “guarantee”, to entice the private sector into building a series of nuclear reactors. The UK Treasury is locked in talks with EDF, the French energy group, over a price mechanism for energy from its proposed reactor at Hinkley Point in southwest England.

Brussels issued separate state-aid guidelines governing renewable forms of energy, as well as energy efficiency projects, in 2008. Joaquín Almunia, the EU competition commissioner, considered extending these to the nuclear sector under a broader review of the regime for policing state subsidies.