Energy Transitions Generate Friction in Central Europe

In the wake of the Japanese nuclear accident, Germany had swiftly announced that it would shutter all of its nuclear power plants by 2022. Its recent announcement suggests Berlin now plans to use its considerable weight to push others to follow suit.

"Despite the problems with Energiewende, Germany views itself as a forerunner of global actions to protect the climate and is making every effort to maintain its green image on the international stage," write analysts at Warsaw's Centre for Eastern Studies (OSW).

In particular, Schulze suggests that Germany's new anti-nuclear drive will take aim at projects close to its borders. That won't go down well with the Visegrad Four (V4). The Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia are all pinning their hopes on nuclear to help with their energy transitions.

The quartet insists they cannot meet the EU climate targets without nuclear. The Czech Republic has placed the technology at the core of its transition plans and aims to build up to four new reactors over the coming decades.

"If we really want to reach carbon neutrality, we have to understand that each member state has a different energy mix and that the costs of reaching carbon neutrality are different for each state," Prime Minister Andrej Babis said in 2019 as he pushed for Brussels to recognise nuclear as a "low carbon energy source".

Yet it's not just Germany standing in the way. The stance over nuclear power puts the V4 at odds with many other EU states to the west, which also stress renewable energy sources as the solution.

Further than that, the group has diverging interests among themselves, which are becoming more obvious as the transition starts to become a reality - one that carries with it immense economic,...

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