Hungarian minister shared how the EU’s competitiveness can be improved

In the absence of a big increase in nuclear capacity, the European Union’s competitiveness and energy security will not improve and its climate goals will not be met, the minister of foreign affairs and trade told the general assembly of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna on Monday.

Péter Szijjártó said Europe was living through “the greatest economic, security and energy crises” of the past decades, and the only way to improve its competitiveness, guarantee energy security and maintain its ambitions in environmental protection was to boost nuclear capacity, so producing large amounts of energy cheaply and safely.

He said annual output of the world’s 440 nuclear plants was equal to 180 billion cubic meters of natural gas consumption.

“If we really want to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, we must at least double capacities,” he said. “Otherwise, Europe clearly will not be able to maintain competitiveness and achieve its climate goals.”

So it’s necessary to end the ideological and political debates on the use of nuclear energy, to put a stop to ideological and political attacks on nuclear energy, eliminate discrimination, and create a level playing field, he said.

Hungary, he said, had gladly signed the letter on the “undoubted” advantages of nuclear energy the IAEA’s director general sent to this year’s UN COP28 climate conference.

Briefing the assembly on the upgrade of Hungary’s Paks nuclear plant, Szijjártó said determining a country’s energy mix was a “physical” issue rather than a political one.