France under pressure after Germany agreed to EU sanctions on Russian nuclear fuel

Sven Giegold, State Secretary at the German Treasury, said that keeping the EU is «weakening European sovereignty.» dependent on Russia for nuclear power.” Photo: FILIP SINGER/EPA-EFE/REX

France is under pressure to support future European Union sanctions on the Russian nuclear industry as Germany joins a growing coalition advocating punitive measures in the sector.

Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are already promoting Ukraine's plans to tighten Russian energy sanctions to put further pressure on Vladimir Putin.

The EU is gradually phasing out imports of Russian oil, gas and coal, but nuclear the country's industry remains largely intact.

While Hungary openly opposes such sanctions as it builds a new nuclear reactor funded by a Russian loan, France remains a much more secretive opponent of the plan.

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Sven Gigold, State Secretary of the German Finance Ministry , singled out Paris over the weekend as its government signaled for the first time that it would support sanctions on Russia's nuclear sector.

The official position of Berlin was announced by the Minister of Economics. Robert Habek, who said: «Nuclear technology is an extremely sensitive area, and Russia can no longer be considered a reliable partner here.»

Any ban imposed under the 11th EU sanctions package against Moscow could ban member states to deal with Rosatom, the Russian state agency for atomic energy.

The French nuclear power giant EDF has a number of joint ventures and contracts with Rosatom for the production and enrichment of nuclear fuel, as well as for the export of spent fuel to Russia.

«Many other member states are also demanding the inclusion of nuclear energy in sanctions against Russia — especially in Eastern Europe, which feels particularly threatened,” Mr. Gigold tweeted.

In der EU verhandeln wir derzeit über das nächste Paket an Sanktionen gegen Russland. Bisher wurde zwar Öl, Gas und Kohle mit Sanktionen belegt, Atombrennstoffe und -Technik jedoch nicht. Jetzt hat die Bundesregierung die Ausweitung der Sanktionen offiziell gefordert.

— Sven Giegold (@sven_giegold) April 15, 2023

“We will try to convince France and other countries in the transition period.”

< p >“The fact that the EU remains dependent on Russia for nuclear energy is a weakening of European sovereignty. Another weakness of Europe's capacity to act is that sanctions tend to be adopted unanimously by all member states,” he added.

Germany has partly opposed previous EU attempts to impose a ban on Russian fossil fuel imports due to its reliance on Moscow for cheap energy.

However, the EU's largest economy shut down its last remaining nuclear power plants after a temporary delay as Berlin sought alternatives to Russian gas after Putin's invasion of Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly called on EU countries to support sanctions against Rosatom.

The joint proposal of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, with the support of Kiev, should be proposed as part of talks on the next round of sanctions, a senior diplomat told The Telegraph.

It suggests top officials of the Russian state nuclear giant have been hit by asset freezes and travel bans on Europe, as well as an embargo on nuclear supplies. materials from Russia.

“We don’t want to harm those who really need it, some countries have asked us not to kill their energy,” the source added.