I wrote here on March 19, 2018 that “Europe, in the conditions of the extreme right-wing political drift, will make the present Europe collapse, which stretches, hesitates and does not have a project at all levels: human, political, economic and social. … To avoid this drama, Europe needs to think about rethinking with new paths and goals. This serious drift situation cannot be overcome with small political agreements. ”

I titled the article “New Weapons … This Europe Tends to Fade”. Now, in almost all important areas of decision-making in the European Union, bias, hesitation, delaying decisions, conflict of ideas and interests of steel behavioral brand…

With Covid-19, there has been a slight hiatus in hesitation, albeit not without conflict and mousetraps in application. I am referring to the conclusion of contracts for the general procurement of vaccines and financing (non-repayable and loans) from the European Union to support the economic recovery of the member states from the catastrophic consequences of Covid.

In Portugal, these funds, which underlie the Plan for Recovery and Resilience (PRR), are known as bazooka money, as Prime Minister Antonio Costa called it. But these amounts, in terms of volume, left much to be desired compared to the amounts allocated by the United States or Germany for the same purposes, no longer bearing in mind the time required for approval and implementation, and the short term for their provision. application by countries, which tends to formulate projects and development strategies imperfectly.

The European Union (EU) takes too long the decision-making process, and almost always, when it has to make them, meetings continue until late at night, to then decide on “Almost all», A mixture of often very vague messages.

Energy policy drift

1. At this point, it should be difficult to find a theme like Energy that better reflects typical solution format from the EU.

Electricity prices in Europe (and worldwide) are skyrocketing. Bad news for climate change, pockets of businesses and families.

Some countries trying to move forward through cooperation initiated by the EU in response to Covid-19 and measures “irrelevant and unrelated“, Which various countries undertook to attack the rise in prices, offered a joint purchase of gas. But others, led by Germany, objected, stating that it was temporary and therefore inappropriate. Still others, such as France and Spain, have moved forward with an overview of the functioning of the European market for wholesale energy prices.

European Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson objects to this, stating that “changing the current model poses risks to market predictability, competitiveness and our transition to clean energy.”

In a simplified form, the operating model of the European energy market regulates the prices of the least competitive units. For example, France produces a megawatt of electricity of about 40 euros (using nuclear power), and the ceiling price in Germany is 100 euros. Nothing justifies France or any other country in the system that should collect this is Germany’s marginal cost. But this is what it really is.

It does not take very deep reasoning to question the “merits” of this operating model (and who benefits from it) and conclude that this is a problem that deserves widespread discussion and requires a balanced solution. How it works, the model is a complete absurd…

The European price market is perhaps the problem that, in the energy sector, along with nuclear, causes the greatest disruption and controversy among Member States.

The Big Challenges of Nuclear Power in Europe

2. European countries are lining up along three lines: defenders of nuclear energy with France at the forefront; countries opposed to this type of energy, led by Germany and in the third group, taking a prudent position, among which Italy stands out.

France is a great world power in this area either because of its high installed production capacity (about 75% of its electricity comes from this source) or because of its technology area, which is already in its fourth generation, is currently heavily invested in SMR … – small nuclear reactors, where you expect startups and SMEs make big bets.

President Macron sees the development of nuclear power in its various configurations, say, heavy and light, as one of the areas of his presidential campaign, and he has made a bet to invest about one billion euros in SMR until 2030. EDF, for its part, will move forward with large nuclear power plants.

But France is not giving up its big bet on renewables and is positioning itself to play an important role in hydrogen worldwide.

France’s great struggle is to be considered nuclear power within the Union. green energy… On the other hand, there seems to be a lot of progress in the area of ​​nuclear waste, a major problem in this sector.

France is accompanied by a group of European countries, some of which are going to start investments from nuclear power plants, such as Finland, where even the Green Party accepts investments in one way or another.

It is clear that at the level of each country, the environment also has pluses and minuses. In France, this situation is very acute, although public opinion polls show that the population is more supportive of nuclear energy.

Financial disputes

3. There is a certain radicalism within the EU on this issue, especially those who do not defend even a “penny” of funding from the Union for nuclear energy.

There is a global ITER project based on European territory, more precisely in the south of France, for the study of nuclear fusion (two energy production processes: fission and fusion, the first of which is the most technically dominant, but thermonuclear fusion is the safest when the time comes). be dominated), will it not be necessary to allocate funding for research at least temporarily? Are you afraid of the results?

This radical division seems to us unreasonable and hindering progress. Germany occupies this position along with Portugal and other countries as partners.

FinallyThe European Union, in order to move forward with its consolidation and global projection, must break with “this indecisive boredom” and latent and permanent division. And in big and small matters, make firm and quick decisions. It is important to find your own path, and not constantly fall under the US hat, namely in international politics.

The author writes in the old spelling.