{"id":117321,"date":"2025-05-20T14:55:25","date_gmt":"2025-05-20T14:55:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/117321\/"},"modified":"2025-05-20T14:55:25","modified_gmt":"2025-05-20T14:55:25","slug":"germany-signals-alignment-with-france-on-nuclear-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/117321\/","title":{"rendered":"Germany signals alignment with France on nuclear power"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                                    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/shutterstock_45802543-430x241.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                                    The previous German government had phased out nuclear plants, considering atomic power low-carbon but not renewable. Credit: Manuel Fernandes\/Shutterstock.<\/p>\n<p class=\"drop-cap\">The German government has indicated to France it will no longer oppose treating nuclear power on a par with renewable energy in European Union (EU) legislation, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/business\/energy\/berlin-paris-overcome-rift-over-nuclear-energy-french-official-says-2025-05-19\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Reuters<\/a> has reported.<\/p>\n<p>The two countries have long disagreed over promoting atomic power to achieve CO\u2082 emissions targets.<\/p>\n<p>This development could significantly influence EU legislation and the bloc\u2019s collective approach to tackling climate change.<\/p>\n<p>Germany, under its new Chancellor Friedrich Merz, has indicated a shift in its stance on nuclear energy.<\/p>\n<p>The country now aligns with France\u2019s long-standing advocacy for nuclear power, which constitutes around 70% of its energy mix.<\/p>\n<p>The previous German government had phased out nuclear plants, considering atomic power low-carbon but not renewable.<\/p>\n<p>However, the new leadership has changed the country\u2019s stance. Both countries aim for climate neutrality, competitiveness and sovereignty in their energy sectors.<\/p>\n<p>This shift could pressure the European Commission to increase funding for nuclear projects, despite the challenges of financing, development and the long lead times required for new nuclear production to commence.<\/p>\n<p>Confirming a report in the Financial Times, a French official highlighted the recent joint editorial by Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron in Le Figaro.<\/p>\n<p>The leaders emphasised the need for technological neutrality and non-discriminatory treatment of all low-carbon energies within the EU framework.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the positive outlook on nuclear energy\u2019s role in Europe, a German economy ministry spokesperson chose not to comment on the report.<\/p>\n<p>Nonetheless, the trend towards embracing nuclear power is evident, with countries such as Belgium halting a planned phase-out and others in central Europe and Sweden planning new reactors.<\/p>\n<p>In March 2025, France took a significant step by granting state-owned EDF a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.power-technology.com\/news\/france-edf-loan-nuclear-reactors\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">preferential loan<\/a> to cover at least half of the costs for six new EPR2 nuclear reactors.<\/p>\n<p>This move is part of Macron\u2019s initiative to modernise the country\u2019s nuclear fleet, with EDF and the state anticipating concluding financial negotiations by spring 2025 and then seeking European Commission approval.<\/p>\n<p>                    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1744831271_191_newsletter-new.svg.svg+xml\" alt=\"Email newsletter icon\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n                    Sign up for our daily news round-up!<br \/>\n                    Give your business an edge with our leading industry insights.\n                <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The previous German government had phased out nuclear plants, considering atomic power low-carbon but not renewable. Credit: Manuel&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":117322,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5310],"tags":[2000,299,1824,1767],"class_list":{"0":"post-117321","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-germany","11":"tag-nuclear"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114540742266588098","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117321\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}