EU court rejects Austria’s nuke case

A EUROPEAN Union court yesterday dismissed a case brought by Austria against EU-approved subsidies for a new nuclear power plant in Britain.

Anti-nuclear Austria challenged the European Commission’s green light for the Hinkley Point C project before the Luxembourg-based EU court in 2015.

“The General Court confirms the decision by which the commission approved the aid provided by the UK in favor of the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station,” the court said.

“The General Court accordingly dismisses the action brought by Austria,” added the statement from the EU’s second highest court.

Austria was backed by Luxembourg and nuclear activists while Britain was backed by the Czech Republic, France, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia.

In a campaign against nuclear power in Europe, then Chancellor Werner Faymann argued in 2015 that state aid for nuclear power was not in the public interest.

But the court

ruled yesterday it was up to an individual member state to decide what technologies were in the public interest, even if other member states disagreed.

“The commission did not err in taking the view that the UK was entitled to define the development of nuclear energy as being a public-interest objective,” it said.

The UK government has stressed that Hinkley will be vital for the country’s energy security as most of the existing nuclear stations were due to close before 2023.