Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-11-15-Speech-2-368"
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"en.20051115.30.2-368"2
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".
Mr President, I welcome the report by Mrs Harms, but at the same time I would like to remind you that the debate today is not about pro- or anti-nuclear issues; it must primarily be about safety. This includes on the one hand nuclear safety, and on the other security of energy supply.
We are all aware of the very high costs involved in carrying out decommissioning of nuclear power plants in a safe and professional manner. I am convinced that all European institutions, the Commission, Parliament and every Member of this House agree that we cannot skimp when it comes to nuclear safety. Alongside the ‘polluter pays’ principle, therefore, we must make room for the phrase ‘safety comes at a price’.
I would like to stress that the European Union must appreciate Slovakia’s unselfishness in this matter. It had to agree to close down two units of the Bohunice nuclear power plant when this requirement was added almost as an indispensable condition in the very last stages of the accession process. We knew then that this would involve a loss of production capacity, a shortage that Slovakia would have to meet with new investment and imports.
In our neck of the woods there is also a saying that ‘he who pays the fiddler calls the tune’. In this sense I think Slovakia’s request to the European institution to enable it to decommission the plant safely is perfectly reasonable.
In my view, there are at least three elements in European Union principles and policy that would provide adequate justification for supporting decommissioning out of European resources. The first is the principle of social, economic and territorial cohesion between Member States. Slovakia has made a major commitment for the sake of the European Union, and is fulfilling it, but it cannot go beyond its own limits, its own level of economic development.
The second is security of energy supply, which is as much a right of domestic and industrial consumers in Slovakia as in any other Member State of the European Union. Let us not forget that not so long ago we adopted a resolution calling for a 20% target for renewable energies in the EU's overall energy consumption by 2020; the situation today is therefore not the same as it was in the past.
The third is combating energy dependency. Early closure of viable energy generating capacity can only help in this regard if it is replaced by more efficient, economically sound capacity. Based on all these points, I call upon you to support Amendment 16, which has this as its aim."@en1
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