Eleven European countries team up for "closer nuclear cooperation"

Eleven European countries committed on February 28 to “cooperate more closely” across the entire nuclear supply chain, and promote “common industrial projects” in new generation capacity as well as new technologies like small reactors.

The signatories signed a declaration in Stockholm, with the objective of “jointly reaffirming their desire to strengthen European cooperation in the field of nuclear energy,” according to a statement, Euractiv writes.

“Nuclear energy is one of many tools to achieve our climate goals, to generate baseload electricity and to ensure the security of supply,” reads the declaration, which was signed on the margins of a meeting of EU energy ministers organised by Sweden, the current holder of the EU’s six-month rotating presidency.

French Energy Transition Minister Agnès-Pannier Runacher, who initiated the meeting, said the objective of the alliance was “to structure cooperation on the whole nuclear value chain” and provide Europe “with all the tools to reach carbon neutrality by 2050”.

The eleven signatories include Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia. The EU Commissioner for Energy, Kadri Simson, also took part in the meeting, an EU official confirmed.