Green MEPs, Daniel Cohn-Bendit (France) and Rebecca Harms (Germany), today urged the Italian population to vote ‘si’ in Sunday’s referendum on nuclear energy, claiming that a yes vote rejecting nuclear power as an energy option for Italy, would start a “snowball effect†across the rest of Europe.
Cohn-Bendit pointed out that the referendum was the first in Europe on this issue and urged the Italian people to vote in order to give all European citizens a better future.
Harms outlined how a majority of European citizens now opposed nuclear energy – a view that had grown since the Fukishima tragedy in Japan earlier this year. And she listed all the countries rejecting nuclear power. It was not only Germany who had recently moved to phase out nuclear power but a whole host of countries had never chosen the nuclear route, including Ireland, Denmark, Austria, Spain, Greece, Portugal, Switzerland and Belgium.
Poland is also due to hold a referendum and France is debating the issue afresh. With elections due in France, Germany and Italy in the next three years, the Green MEPs argued that we could shortly reach a position where there are three governments “at the heart of Europe†adopting an anti-nuclear stance and that this would send a “strong message†to nations around the world.
The MEPs suggested there were sound fiscal reasons to reject nuclear power. It would cost Italy at least 700 million Euros to earthquake “proof†any nuclear installations. Fundamentally, the country’s topological and geological make up made it inherently unsuitable for nuclear power plants.
Moreover, Cohn-Bendit highlighted the “inherent contradiction†at the heart of UK policy on nuclear energy. Its position of including nuclear power in the mix for future energy provision was predicated on such development being privately funded and not involving public funding. The Green MEP claimed this was impossible to do. Experience in Japan showed that even with private investors, public funding was still required and frankly, the UK Government did not have the money to do this in the current financial climate.
While the fiscal issue is a key one, it is also clear that the UK is travelling in the wrong direction on this important issue from its fellow EU members. The future is bright, it would appear, and it does not include nuclear.
So long as the Italians do indeed vote si on Sunday.
– blogged from the European Parliament in Strasbourg –