Royal promises policy debate, queries EPR

French Socialist Party candidate Ségolène Royal has told an antinuclear group that she would order a new debate on France's energy policy, if she were to become president. She queried the decision to build the first-of-a-kind EPR at Flamanville.

French Socialist Party candidate Ségolène Royal has told an antinuclear group that she would order a new debate on France's energy policy, if she were to become president. She queried the decision to build the first-of-a-kind EPR at Flamanville. 

Royal made her views known in a letter to the antinuclear network Sortir du Nucleaire. Construction on the unit is scheduled to start this year. Sortir du Nucleaire is planning demonstrations against EPR in Rennes, Lille, Strasbourg, Lyon and Toulouse this weekend (17 March).

In her letter Royal said that she wanted a debate to focus on reducing energy consumption, developing renewable energy, including decentralised energy and examining the future of nuclear energy.

Royal said the decision taken by the French Parliament to develop the EPR was taken under conditions of contestable analysis and debate, no impact study was presented and there were no proposals for diversification of the energy mix.

Last week Royal, a fomer Environment Minister for President François Mitterrand, supported behind proposals for an increase in the share of renewable energy in Europe.

Speaking after a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Royal said Germany was right to press for a 20 per cent share in renewable energy in overall EU energy consumption by 2020.

This was not the position of the current French government, she said, but Merkel's proposals offered a new perspective for climate protection in Europe. During the meeting France was a strong advocate for recognition of the contribution nuclear energy makes to greenhouse gas emissions reduction.

Royal is currently polling second in a three-way race to win the Socialist party nomination for President.

Further information

Sortir du Nucleaire

WNA's French Nuclear Power Program information paper

WNN: EU sets carbon and renewables targets, backs nuclear