EUROPE • FINANCE The EU’s energy commissioner Loyola de Palacio has proposed measures to ensure that government money earmarked for decommissioning nuclear power stations is not mis-used. This follows Luxembourg MEP Claude Turmes’ accusation that German and French utilities such as E.On, RWE and EDF have used tens of billions of euros of decommissioning funds to buy up foreign competitors such as Innogy and parts of Enel and Endesa. The EU, she said, needed clear rules on the provision and use of monies set aside by governments to pay for nuclear clean up; these funds should have clear objectives “that must be respected at all costs”.
Turmes, who is guiding the EU parliament’s first reading of a major legislative package to liberalise the European energy markets, is trying to insert a clause that will force governments to prevent any such abuse. De Palacio wants the EU assembly to vote down the Turmes amendment and wait instead for her proposal to be tabled ‘within a few months’.