EON SE Chief Executive Officer Johannes Teyssen pleaded with Germany’s top judges to make sure the country’s three biggest utilities are treated fairly while the nation winds down nuclear-power production. Teyssen addressed the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe on Tuesday at the first day of hearings regarding the country’s nuclear exit. While the industry accepts the political decision taken by Germany after the 2011 Fukushima catastrophe in Japan, he said the cost shouldn’t be unilaterally dumped on the utilities.
Bloomberg 15th March 2016 read more »
A bruising confrontation between Germany’s utilities and the government over its contentious decision to pull the plug on nuclear power reached the country’s highest court on Tuesday, as the companies accused the state of expropriating their atomic plants without paying compensation. If judges in the constitutional court in Karlsruhe rule in favour of Eon, RWE and Vattenfall, the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel could face having to pay billions of euros in damages to the groups. But for many in the industry, the trial is a sideshow. The real action is elsewhere – in the deliberations of a commission of experts that for the past five months has been trying to figure out how to divide up the costs of Germany’s multibillion-euro atomic clean-up b etween the utilities and the state. The nuclear commission is groping for a compromise that does not impose too great a financial burden on the power sector but is also a fair deal for German taxpayers. But agreement has so far proved elusive – the commission was supposed to deliver its final proposals last month, but that has now been postponed until mid-April.
FT 16th March 2016 read more »
Reuters 15th March 2016 read more »
A commission tasked with safeguarding funds for the shutdown of Germany’s nuclear plants will present proposals at the end of April, the country’s environment minister said on Tuesday.
Reuters 15th March 2016 read more »