Investing in nuclear is necessary for Italy to pursue its energy objectives and would ensure the principle of European energy sovereignty is respected, said Lega MP Luca Toccalini (ID), as the coalition agreement expresses an intention to invest in nuclear.
In addition to investments in renewable energies and partnerships concluded with North African countries for gas supplies, Italy wants to include nuclear energy in its energy mix.
“In addition to being clean and safe, investing in nuclear power is extremely necessary to pursue the strategic objectives of Italian but also European energy sovereigntỳ” MP Luca Toccalini (Lega/ID) told EURACTIV.
The centre-right parties in government – Fratelli d’Italia (ECR), Lega (ID) and Forza Italia (EPP) – had already expressed their intention to return to investing in nuclear power in the election programme with which they won the general election in September 2022.
The strategy is also shared by centre parties such as ex-Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s Italia Viva and ex-Economy Minister Carlo Calenda’s Azione, forming the ‘Third Pole’ coalition.
A few days ago, the Chamber of Deputies approved the majority’s motion on energy initiatives to achieve climate neutrality goals, particularly regarding nuclear energy.
The motion commits the government to accelerate Italy’s decarbonisation process and to assess the opportunity to include nuclear power in the national energy mix “as an alternative and clean source of energy production”.
To meet the national need for clean energy, the government must also identify territories “outside of Italy” where nuclear power is produced to enter into international agreements and partnerships to guarantee imports.
“Fourth-generation nuclear power is as safe as it is clean”, said Environment and Energy Security Minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin.
“We will now discuss it with our European partners and consider, with the utmost care, how to include it in the national energy mix for the coming decades, to achieve, also with the contribution of nuclear energy, the decarbonisation targets set by the European Union, up to the final goal of climate neutrality in 2050”, he added.
Last March, Italy participated as an observer in the meeting on nuclear power organised by France on the sidelines of the EU Energy Council underway in Brussels. The month before, eleven European countries signed a cooperation agreement on nuclear energy called the ‘Nuclear Alliance’.
Undici paesi dell’UE lanciano un’alleanza per l’energia nucleare in Europa
Among these countries, Germany is missing since, in recent years, it has chosen to follow the opposite path and shut down its nuclear power plants. The last three reactors were shut down on 15 April, despite protests from some politicians, climate scientists and leading researchers.
According to Toccalini, Scholz’s government “chooses to listen to the green ideological sirens of the Greens, showing little pragmatism”.
On the contrary, the government led by current Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni will “participate at European tables with the aim of defending Italy and its excellence in the energy and automotive sectors”. “There is no doubt about that”, Toccalini stressed.
The 8 November 1987 referendum that led to the abandonment of nuclear energy in Italy does not introduce any prohibition or require to repeat a referendum to proceed with the construction of nuclear power plants. An ordinary law outlining a national energy plan is sufficient.
(Federica Pascale | EURACTIV.it)
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