Ursula von der Leyen0:40
Dear President Macron, thank you for hosting this crucial summit here today. Presidents, Prime Ministers, Director General Grossi, excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, Europe's electricity prices are structurally too high. This matters enormously because affordable electricity is not only important for our citizens' cost of living, but it is also decisive for industrial competitiveness. The industries of the future, as you have rightly said, will be built on affordable electricity because robotics and AI, just to name two, will drive the next wave of innovation and productivity across all industrial sectors. And both require affordable electricity in abundance. And that is why industrial competitiveness is increasingly determined by who can best produce, transport, store, and use abundant and affordable electricity. Now Europe is neither an oil nor a gas producer. For fossil fuels, we are completely dependent on expensive and volatile imports. They are putting us at a structural disadvantage to other regions. And the current Middle East crisis gives a stark reminder of the vulnerability it creates. But we have homegrown energy sources: nuclear and renewable. And together they can become the joint guarantors of independence, security of supply, and competitiveness if we get it right now. Over the last decade, we have made great progress on renewables. Solar and wind have overtaken fossil fuels in the EU's power mix. And our European wind turbine manufacturers are global powerhouses. They are exporting high-tech made in Europe to the world. The nuclear story unfortunately is different, and you described why. While in 1990, one third of Europe's electricity came from nuclear, today it's only close to 15%. This reduction in the share of nuclear was a choice. And in hindsight, it was a strategic mistake for Europe to turn its back on a reliable, affordable source of low-emission power. This should change for two good reasons. First, because nuclear and renewables have a key role to play. This is not an either-or. It is in combination that they are most powerful because what we need is the best overall energy mix: clean, affordable, resilient, European. Renewables produce the lowest cost electrons, but they are volatile depending on sun and wind. And sometimes the best sites are far from industrial demand centers. That is why we need also to invest in storage and in demand flexibility and build out our grids. Nuclear energy is reliable, providing electricity all year round, around the clock. So the most efficient system combines nuclear and renewables and is underpinned by storage, flexibility, and grids. The second reason is that Europe has been a pioneer in nuclear technology and could once again lead the world in it. Next generation nuclear reactors could become a European high-tech, high-value export, and this is what brings us to Paris here today. In the last years, we see a global revival of nuclear energy, and Europe wants to be part of it. Last year, we changed our state aid rules to expand support to nuclear fission and fuels. We launched the world's first industrial alliance for small modular reactors. And we propose to invest over 5 billion euros in our next budget on fusion research, notably through ITER. But after years of declining investment, we need more to turn the tide. And this is why today we are presenting a new European strategy for small modular reactors as a Commission. Our goal is very simple. We want this new technology to be operational in Europe by the early 2030s so that it can play a key role alongside traditional nuclear reactors in a flexible, safe, and efficient energy system. We are proposing three main sets of measures. The first is we need simple rules, and you spoke about standardization. We will create regulatory sandboxes so that companies can test innovative technologies, and we will work with member states so that rules are aligned across borders. And the logic is very clear: when it is safe to deploy, it has to be simple to deploy all across Europe. Second, we need to mobilize investment. And today I can announce that we will create a 200 million euro guarantee to support investment in innovative nuclear technologies, and the resources will come from our emission trading system. Not only will we de-risk investments in these low-carbon technologies, we also want to give a clear signal for other investors to join. This is one concrete step, and it is part of a broader effort to improve the investment conditions for Europe's nuclear sector. My third point is this must be a joint European effort. The modular reactor's business model needs scale, so operation across European borders is vital. And this is why we will work with member states to align their regulatory frameworks, speed up permitting, and develop the skills the sector needs. Companies from member states, but also from trusted partners, should also come together. For instance, they could co-invest in research, in testing facilities, and in creating European value chains for nuclear fuels. But our ambition is not limited to SMRs. We also need to strengthen the wider nuclear ecosystem, be it from fuels to technologies, from supply chains to skills, just to name a few. And this is also why we propose our clean energy investment strategy to lower energy costs, to accelerate the deployment of clean technologies, and to open up more financing opportunities. Ladies and gentlemen, obviously the nuclear race is on, but we know that Europe has everything it needs to lead. We have half a million highly skilled workers in nuclear, far more than the United States and China actually. We lead global innovation in modular reactors. And now we have the ambition to move at speed and scale for Europe to be a global hub of next generation nuclear energy. Thank you so much, and long live Europe.
