On the first day of the December plenary session of the European Committee of the Regions, ECR Vice-President Oldřich Vlasák addressed the German Minister of the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, Svenja Schulze. Mr Vlasák spoke on the benefits of nuclear energy, particularly in the Czech Republic, where it has been instrumental in lowering carbon emissions in the past three decades.

Mr Vlasák, councillor in the city of Hradec Králové, acknowledged the importance of embracing clean energy sources that will not raise energy costs for citizens. It is for this reason that he adamantly defended nuclear energy. He described how historically speaking the Czech Republic was very dependent on energy from coal and that despite energy consumption going up in the Czech Republic in the past few decades, overall emissions have been on the decline due to his country's increased reliance on nuclear energy.

The ECR Vice-President also discussed the macro-level and underlined how various European countries including Sweden, Slovakia and France have been able to lower their emissions by increasing their investments in nuclear energy. Mr Vlasák was rather critical about the nuclear phase-out in Germany, pointing out that this actually increased emissions because wind, solar and other green technologies often need to be backed up with generators powered by fossil fuels.

Mr Vlasák concluded his speech by addressing EU policy in a broad sense, saying: "In the light of this (nuclear power's efficiency) I am surprised that the EU seems sceptical towards nuclear energy. The European Commission did not even mention nuclear among low-carbon electricity sources in its hydrogen strategy from July this year."

For the ECR Vice-President, we must realise that “technological progress is advancing but without stable sources of energy – we cannot guarantee enough energy at all”. He also added that it is important to continuously support “research on the safety of nuclear power stations as well as nuclear waste disposal”.

While Mr Vlasák acknowledges nuclear energy is not the sole solution to climate change and the energy crisis, he emphasized that it should be used in concert with renewable sources of energy if we are to fulfil the goals of the European Green Deal and just transition.