WRITTEN QUESTION E-1304/02

by Kathalijne Buitenweg (Verts/ALE) to the Commission

(7 May 2002)

Subject: Financial accountability of the EU for various aid to nuclear facilities

The European Union provides financial and organisational support to various nuclear facilities in the current Member States of the EU and in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. It assists with the operation of modern facilities and the decommissioning and dismantling of redundant, old and/or unsafe complexes. Many nuclear power stations which have received substantial European resources for their operation over a long period are now being or will eventually be decommissioned. In this case, a further application can be made for considerable European financial support.

Although large sums of money are involved, the European Union's financial accountability for the support provided to nuclear installations is somewhat opaque. In addition, it is unclear how much money is disbursed through the European Investment Bank for these purposes.

1. Can the Commission provide a clear and comprehensive statement of the resources spent by the European Union on the start-up, operation, improvement, decommissioning and dismantling of nuclear power installations in the Union, the applicant countries and other countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the CIS, starting in 1990 and broken down by Community programme (for instance, TACIS and PHARE)?

2. Can the Commission also provide, on the basis of the breakdown outlined in paragraph 1, details of the amounts that the European Investment Bank (EIB) has invested in activities relating to the start-up, operation, upgrading, decommissioning and dismantling of nuclear power station facilities in the Union, the candidate countries and other countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the CIS?

Answer given by Mr Verheugen on behalf of the Commission

(27 June 2002)

Neither under the PHARE and TACIS programmes, nor within the Union itself, has any Community or European Investment Bank (EIB) financial support been provided for the start-up of nuclear power installations. Community assistance is generally focused on nuclear safety issues, as stated in the Communication from the Commission to the Council and the Parliament

on Commission support to nuclear safety in Newly Independent Countries and Central and Eastern Europe of 6 September 2000(1). This has included, operational support, support to the nuclear regulators, waste management and decommissioning issues, safeguards and offsite emergency preparedness.

As regards the PHARE financial instrument available to support Central and Eastern European candidate countries, for example, Community grant assistance has not been made available for the start-up of any nuclear power installation. The PHARE programme has provided grant financial assistance to nuclear safety measures at nuclear power plants in beneficiary countries. Thus, grant support reaches merely as far as safety is part of the operation of such an installation. The operation of power plants, as such, is the sole responsibility of the utility company operating the plant. PHARE-funded assistance will not be made available for decommissioning at the end of the normal technical lifetime of nuclear power plants.

Exclusively in support of the early closure and decommissioning of reactors of RBMK and VVER 440/230 design in Lithuania, Bulgaria and Slovakia, the Commission has, since 1999, programmed Community-funded assistance through the PHARE financial instrument. This assistance is linked to the three candidate countries' commitments to the early closure of the power reactors at the Ignalina, Kozloduy 1-4 and Bohunice V1 Nuclear Power Plants. To date, the Commission has programmed the following Community assistance from overall commitments envisaged for the current Financial Perspective (2000-2006):

>TABLE>

The bulk of this support is delivered through three International Decommissioning Support Funds, managed by the European Bank for reconstruction and development (EBRD). A further part of the assistance is directed to support the national nuclear safety regulatory authorities of the three countries in licensing the decommissioning measures. On 30 January 2002, the Commission proposed to the Council, in an Information Note on the Common Financial Framework 2004-2006 for the Accession Negotiations, to provide additional decommissioning support to Lithuania.

To a very limited extent, PHARE grant assistance has been provided to support the preparation of Euratom loan decisions. Subsequently, the Commission extended an Euratom loan amounting to EUR 212,5 million for the modernisation of Kozloduy Units 5 & 6, whilst a Romanian loan request regarding Cernavoda Unit 2 is still pending.

Whilst the PHARE nuclear safety programme initially also provided support to operators for urgent nuclear safety improvement measures, the programme has since clearly shifted towards supporting the nuclear safety regulatory authorities. The commercially operating utility companies are expected to fund safety measures from their own resources. Currently, apart from the focus on nuclear safety regulatory authorities, PHARE-funded support is also mainly addressing measures in the field of radioactive waste management in candidate countries.

The Tacis support to nuclear safety is regulated by the Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) 99/2000 of 29 December 1999 concerning the provision of assistance to the partner States in Eastern Europe and Central Asia(2) which covers the period 2000-2006 and sets out three priorities for the nuclear safety programme in the New Independent States (NIS): supporting the promotion of an effective nuclear safety culture, in particular through continuous support for regulatory bodies and, at the plant level, through on site-assistance; supporting the development and implementation of spent fuel, decommissioning and nuclear waste management strategies, including in North West Russia in the context of wider international cooperation; and contributing to relevant Union supported international initiatives such as the Group of seven most industrialised countries and the Union (G7/EU) initiative on the closure of Chernobyl. In addition, support has been provided with the preparation of Euratom loan financing for the completion and safety upgrading of nuclear power plants in the final stage of completion.

Special mention should also be made of support provided for the decommissioning of the Chernobyl plant, where EUR 230 million were committed from 1994 to 2001, including a contribution of EUR 190 million to the Chernobyl Shelter Fund managed by the EBRD. Concerning the replacement capacity after the closure of the Chernobyl plant, Ukraine is carrying out the completion and safety upgrading of two VVER 1000 reactors at Rovno and Khmelnitsky. Financing of this project includes loans from EBRD and Euratom of USD 215 million and the Euro equivalent of USD 585 million, respectively. However, although both loans were approved in December 2000, certain conditions remain to be fulfilled before the loan decisions can become effective.

As regards total Community funding for nuclear safety operations, the Communication from the Commission to the Council and the Parliament on Commission support to nuclear safety in Newly Independent Countries and Central and Eastern Europe of 6 September 2001, provides detailed information on the nature and scope of Community-funded support throughout the 1990s. Annex 1 of this report gives a year-to-year breakdown of TACIS and PHARE-funded support, amounting respectively to EUR 531,78 million and EUR 192,94 million for the period 1990-1999, for nuclear safety measures. To this amount, a further EUR 22,85 million need to be added from the 2001 PHARE nuclear safety programme (no such allocations were made in 2000), as well as EUR 53 million and EUR 51 million committed for TACIS nuclear safety programmes in 2000 and 2001.

During the same period since 1990, the European Investment Bank has not financed any nuclear power plant either within the Community or in Central and Eastern Europe. Within the Community, the European Investment Bank provided a total of EUR 238,03 million in support of three projects in the nuclear energy sector during the years 1990 to 1993. These projects did, however, not relate to nuclear power plants, but to a uranium enrichment plant at Tricastin (France, Rhône-Alpes), the treatment of nuclear fuels at Sellafield (United Kingdom), and a nuclear waste treatment plant at Dessel/Antwerp (Belgium).

(1) COM(2000) 493 final.

(2) OJ L 12, 18.1.2000.