Prague has always been big on upping the Czech Republic’s nuclear power capacity, but less so on how to finance it. As Brussels looks on with dread, Moscow may be about to ferment more discord on the EU’s eastern edges.
Bucking trends in much of Europe, the Czech government has said recently it will announce within the next three months how it plans to finance new nuclear projects. But when the government’s Standing Committee on Nuclear Energy met last week to consider investor models and financing for the construction of new nuclear reactors, many asked: What is actually new, other than the government?
“Czech nuclear plans are going very slowly and there is little interest within the government to have government funds going into them,” Jan Haverkamp, an expert consultant on nuclear energy at Greenpeace Central and Eastern Europe, told DW.
As Prague teeters on the brink of what many call ‘illiberalism’ in Eastern Europe and is cozying up to Moscow, any decision made will shed some light on the Czech Republic’s stance regarding the EU writ large and in particular its C02 emissions targets. Neighbor Poland, also at loggerheads with the EU, is weighing its nuclear options, while Hungary has already taken the Russian route.
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