European commissioners are at odds with each other over including nuclear power in new funding rules aimed at boosting green industries in the EU just 48 hours before the legislation is due to be announced.
Nuclear fission was included as a “strategic net zero industry” in an early draft of the law, meaning atomic power plants could be in line for fast-tracked permitting, preference in public procurement contracts and fiscal incentives to boost investment. But the technology has since been eliminated from the text amid heated discussions that have exposed ideological divides along national lines within the 27-strong college of commissioners.
Promoters of nuclear included the European Commission’s president, Germany’s Ursula von der Leyen, and France’s Thierry Breton, the internal market commissioner, along with eight others largely from central and eastern Europe, according to people familiar with the talks.
In the opposite camp were Frans Timmermans, the EU’s…
