July 2005 EU Nuclear Liabilities: The failure to uphold the polluter pays principle and the case for effective state aid control through new internal market legislation.
Go to the cyberaction now Soon, before mid-April, the European Commission will issue its official
opinion on the Italian owned utility ENEL/SE completing two nuclear
reactors at the Mochovce nuclear power plant. The construction of these
reactors was started more then twenty years ago, but was aborted when
the money ran out.
There are a lot of concerns. Concerns with nuclear power in Slovakia in
general and concerns with the Mochovce nuclear power plant in
particular
Mochovce 3 and 4 are based on a completely outdated design.
ENEL/SE and the Slovakian authorities claim it is a modern nuclear
power plant, but if one examines the technical specifications, you
wonder where they base that on (read more)
Since the Czechoslovak authorities issued the
permit for Mochovce in the eighties a lot has happened. However, the
Slovak governments insists that there are no improvements necesarry to
finish the reactors. For this reason they now refuse to demand a full
Environmental Impact Assessment from ENEL/SE for the project, an
assessment which never has been fully made under Czechoslovak rule.
In Slovakia there are insufficient arrangements for dealing
with nuclear waste, nuclear decommissioning and insurance for nuclear
power installations.
Although nuclear power policy is the sovereignty of member states, the
European Commission has, under the EURATOM treaty, the obligation to
give its opinion on nuclear building projects in Europe. Formally, the
European Commission cannot reject a plan, but they can give a
“negative
opinion”. Eight private banks are planning to finance
Mochovce (ERSTE Bank, Dexia, KBC/ČSOB, Intesa Sanpaolo, ING,
Société Générale, Calyon
Crédit Agricole, and Mizuho). It is likely
that these bank will reconsider their financing plans when the European
Commission expresses its concern with the project.
We urge you to write the Commissioners using the template letter below, or in your own words
You can ofcourse also write something in your own language to the EU Commissioners. Please be courteous and polite; there is nothing to be gained from an impolite letter. You find an Italian translation here.
After you click the submit button, you will get an email with a link to confirm your message. If you click this link, your message will be sent to the EU commissioners.
