In the future, the EU wants to focus more and more on green and sustainable energy - but this also includes nuclear power and gas. Austria does not want to take part and is filing a lawsuit with the European Court of Justice.
Austria is taking legal action before the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg because of the EU Commission's plans to classify nuclear energy as sustainable. "Nuclear power and gas are neither green nor sustainable. That is why, as announced, we have filed a lawsuit against the EU Commission's taxonomy regulation," said Climate Protection Minister Leonore Gewessler (Greens) in Vienna. She confirmed a report by the Austrian newspaper "Kurier".
The European Parliament approved the assessment of gas and nuclear as environmentally compatible in July. The deadline for filing a lawsuit ends on Monday. Gewessler announced that the government would then publish “all the details” about the lawsuit filed on Friday.
From the outset, Austria had opposed the classification of gas and nuclear energy as sustainable and threatened to sue. According to the "Kurier", the government in Vienna is now claiming procedural errors and arguing that the Commission should not make decisions of such scope.
Environmental organizations have also threatened lawsuits. The classification of gas and nuclear power as sustainable should come into force at the turn of the year. With the so-called taxonomy regulation, economic activities are to be classified according to ecological standards, so that investments are to be boosted.
Certain investments in gas or nuclear power plants are considered sustainable if they use the latest technologies and - in the case of gas - replace even more climate-damaging coal-fired power plants. This is how the EU wants to implement its climate plans and become climate-neutral by 2050.
Of the 27 EU member states, only eight had expressed opposition to the so-called taxonomy regulation, including Germany, Austria and Luxembourg - far too few to block the project. On the other hand, France had campaigned for nuclear power to be classified as sustainable.
Austria had already banned nuclear energy in 1978 and included this in the constitution in 1999. The country of nine million currently gets more than three-quarters of its electricity from renewable sources, mostly hydropower. However, it also continues to import electricity generated from other sources, including nuclear power.
