WRITTEN QUESTION E-0116/03

by Salvador Garriga Polledo (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(28 January 2003)

Subject: Need to gain public confidence in the safety of nuclear power stations

The nuclear power industry, along with the aviation sector, is the most closely regulated and safest of all industries. However, no other industrial activity gives rise to so many reservations nor to such demand for guarantees of safety.

The future of the nuclear industry will depend, to a large extent, on the way it is perceived by the general public. Political leaders must therefore act to ensure that the public respects and has confidence in the nuclear industry. Hence the importance of conveying to the man in the street that nuclear power is a necessity and that it can quite feasibly be used alongside other forms of energy.

What steps has the Commission taken to provide EU citizens with information, by way of open and objective information campaigns, as regards the safety of nuclear power and the fact that it is essential if Community industry is not to be weakened?

Answer given by Ms de Palacio on behalf of the Commission

(26 February 2003)

The Commission launched a major debate on the future of the European Union's energy supply with the adoption on 29 November 2000 of the Green Paper Towards a European strategy for the security of energy supply(1), in which, stressing that the Union must take better charge of its energy destiny, it considers the contribution of nuclear energy as well as that of all other energy sources. The final report on the Green Paper, presenting the conclusions of the debate, was adopted by the Commission on 26 June 2002(2).

Fully aware that public confidence depends on the assurance of a high level of safety and a clear and transparent answer to the question of radioactive waste processing, the Commission put forward a package of legislative measures in the field of nuclear safety on 6 November 2002(3). This consists of two proposals for Directives, one concerning the safety of nuclear installations in operation or undergoing decommissioning and the other concerning the management of spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste. Having obtained the opinion of the group of experts provided for in Article 31 of the Euratom Treaty, the Commission requested the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee, which is due to be delivered shortly. The texts of the proposals for Directives can be found on the website of the Commission's Directorate-General for Energy and Transport, under the heading Nuclear Safety.

With a view to transparency in energy matters, the Commission regularly posts the documents it produces on the Internet. The above proposals will help considerably to reassure the public by showing that the Commission is paying close attention to nuclear safety issues and doing what needs to be done to set rules at Community level.

It is not the Commission's role to defend or impose one source of energy or another, but it needs to present the pros and cons of each energy source in a responsible and quantified manner. Energy choices have to be made by the Member States, and it is the Member States and the industry which are best placed to carry out public information campaigns. The Commission's task is to ensure compliance with all the primary and secondary legislation in the various fields.

(1) COM(2000) 769 final.

(2) COM(2002) 321 final.

(3) COM(2003) 32 final.