The top ministers of the federal government met all evening on Monday about the nuclear exit, but an agreement has not yet been reached. The file will move to the cabinets today, Tuesday, to clarify a number of technical and legal questions, government circles say.
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The government core had been meeting in 16 Wetstraat since just after 7 pm. The final closure of the nuclear power plants in 2025 was on the table.
The core cabinet lasted until just before 1 am, but no agreement was reached. The core has examined all options ‘in depth’, government officials said afterwards.
The top ministers will meet again later this week about the energy file, but the discussion will first move to the inter-cabinet working groups. They must clear a number of technical and legal issues from tomorrow morning, according to a source, “to move structurally towards a decision.” Ensuring supplies and keeping prices under control remain ‘the only objectives’.
Listen to the latest episode of our Great Equal debate podcast. Colleagues Pascal Sertyn and Lisa De Bode file all arguments for and against nuclear energy.
So far, Prime Minister Alexander De Croo has stuck to the deadline of the end of this year. On Monday morning, a government source said “all elements are on the table” for a decision, although elsewhere it was said there was “no deadline” today.
MR Deputy Prime Minister Sophie Wilmès was the only one at the table to openly look at her cards during the meeting. Around half past nine an interview with her appeared on the website of The evening, reportedly to the frustration of some colleagues, in which she insists on extending the latest nuclear power plants and urges the government to start preparations quickly. As far as Wilmès is concerned, a final agreement does not necessarily have to be this week.
The federal government agreed in its coalition agreement to continue with the nuclear phase-out by 2025 – ‘plan A’ – but left an opening to keep the two youngest reactors open for a while if supplies or affordability were compromised – ‘plan B’. According to the MR, this is the case now that the Flemish government has refused the permit for the construction of a new gas-fired power station in Vilvoorde, which should partly compensate for the loss of capacity of the nuclear reactors.
The fact that core operator Engie has already expressly rejected the scenario of a life extension several times is irrelevant to the French-speaking liberals. It is ‘technically and legally possible’, Wilmès put it in the interview with Le Soir, but ‘the longer we wait, the more difficult it becomes to cast that safety net’.
In any case, Engie is submitting a new permit application for the project in Vilvoorde, but if that doesn’t work, there are other solutions on the table in the form of new gas-fired power stations in Manage or Seraing. Ecolo Deputy Prime Minister Georges Gilkinet also pointed to battery storage as a possible solution before the core cabinet meeting. As far as the Minister of Mobility is concerned, it must be ‘certain’ plan A. “We have to prepare for the future. Minister (of Energy, ed.) Van der Straeten has been doing this excellently from the start.’
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