Energy Sprouts in Brussels

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Monday, 24 July 2006

In November the All Party Parliamentary Group on Nuclear Energy spent 2 days in Brussels looking at how the energy issue is handled at EU level. The fourteen strong party met with industry representatives, politicians and officials over their two day visit which was timed to coincide with a hearing on security of energy supply in the European Parliament. In November the All Party Parliamentary Group on Nuclear Energy spent 2 days in Brussels looking at how the energy issue is handled at EU level. The fourteen strong party met with industry representatives, politicians and officials over their two day visit which was timed to coincide with a hearing on security of energy supply in the European Parliament In November the All Party Parliamentary Group on Nuclear Energy spent 2 days in Brussels looking at how the energy issue is handled at EU level. The fourteen strong party met with industry representatives, politicians and officials over their two day visit which was timed to coincide with a hearing on security of energy supply in the European Parliament. The hearing in front of the Industry, Research and Energy Committee chaired by Conservative MEP and All Party Group member Giles Chichester was an informative event for the group with a highly varied range of speakers. First of these was the new Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs, who outlined his vision for energy policy in Europe. He highlighted that security of supply would increasingly become a serious issue for the EU over the coming years. On nuclear power he said that it would continue to be part of the energy mix. Following Mr Piebalgs, Andr� Merlin President of the European Transmission System Operators set out his organisation's view that the EU did need a new Directive on ensuring security of supply in the electricity sector. However in their view the Commission had got it wrong last time they tried as it should still be based entirely on the market. This view was however challenged by the Swedish regulator who thought the market couldn't act alone. There was also an informative presentation on the Swiss position as a country outside the EU but at the centre of the European transmission system, which showed some of the problems they had had with the market driven system. While in Brussels the party also met with the UK Permanent Representation to the EU (UKREP), the British civil servants working for UK ministers in the EU Council of Ministers. They discussed the so called 'nuclear package' of proposals from the Commission which is currently being blocked by the UK, France and Germany among others. UKREP explained that it was unlikely that the measures, designed to create a common nuclear safety system across the EU would progress further as the UK government, with others, wanted nuclear safety and regulation to remain an entirely national matter. Finally, before their departure, the UK MPs had an exchange of views with several MEPs from the UK, Spain and Slovenia on the prospects for the development of the nuclear industry across the EU. All sides agreed that it was vital that the nuclear sector was maintained for both security of supply and environmental reasons. At their regular meeting in November the All Party Group also heard from Laurence Williams of the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII). He spoke about the golden triangle - a link between NDA, licensees/contractors and the regulators which was an aim for the three to work together to ensure safe, secure and environmentally sound remediation. He discussed the benefits of the life cycle baselines and near term work plans and the regulatory implications of these strategies. In the next few months the group will have meetings with Dipesh Shah, Chief Executive of UKAEA; Ala Alizadeh of AECL; and John Ramsay of Cogent.

 

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