Energy: Union parliamentary group leadership for investigative committee on nuclear power lifetime

The leadership of the Union faction in the Bundestag wants to have the decision-making process of the traffic light government on a possible extension of the operating life of nuclear power plants examined by a Bundestag investigative committee two years ago. This was decided by the CDU and CSU faction executive committee in Berlin, according to information from the German Press Agency – the faction still has to vote on the matter.

The Bundestag must set up such a committee upon request from at least a quarter of the members. With 733 members, this means that at least 184 parliamentarians must vote for the investigative committee. The Union has 195 seats in the Bundestag.

The Green Party ministers Robert Habeck (Economy) and Steffi Lemke (Environment) came under pressure after a report in the magazine “Cicero” according to which internal concerns about the nuclear phase-out, which was still planned for the following year, were suppressed in both the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Ministry of the Environment in spring 2022. Both ministries deny this. At that time, Germany’s most important gas supplier, Russia, had attacked Ukraine shortly beforehand, which triggered considerations in Germany about securing energy supplies.

Merz and Dobrindt: Decisions based on green party logic

In a letter from the CDU parliamentary group leader Friedrich Merz (CDU) and the CSU regional group leader Alexander Dobrindt to the CDU MPs, which was made available to the dpa, it says that “the information available to us forces us to conclude that the federal government has not decided for the good of Germany on a crucial issue of our national energy security, but solely according to the logic of green party politics.” Technical considerations from the working level of the ministry were deliberately ignored and in some cases distorted by the leading political officials.

“There is obviously a green system that puts party ideology above the interests of the country,” write Merz and Dobrindt. It needs to be clarified to what extent this took place with the knowledge or on the instructions or approval of the leadership of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Ministry of the Environment.

“The German public has a right to know how the Federal Government’s decision-making processes on a question of national energy security were conducted, influenced or controlled in a situation of war in Europe,” it continues. It must also be clarified whether the political leadership in the ministries concerned deliberately exerted influence in order to withhold the results of a technical examination from the public and thus misinform them.

“Habeck and Lemke missed the opportunity for transparency”

Against the backdrop of special meetings of the committees for climate protection and energy and for the environment at the end of April, the leadership of the Union faction wrote that Habeck and Lemke had “missed the opportunity to clarify the events in their ministries and, above all, their own role in a transparent and comprehensive manner”. Since the publication of the “Habeck files”, the Union had exhausted all parliamentary instruments “to shed light on the shadows of this non-transparent process”. However, many questions remained unanswered, promised documents were only sent incompletely and corresponding evidence was not provided. The faction was therefore recommended to set up a committee of inquiry.

The energy policy spokesman for the FDP coalition faction, Michael Kruse, said on Monday evening that the revelations had led to “noticeable uncertainty among the population.” “A parliamentary committee of inquiry can bring the transparency that is necessary so that Habeck can restore lost trust.”

Bundestag motion: Experts, associations and companies included?

The four-page Union motion to set up the investigative committee states, among other things, that the committee should clarify whether and what information on energy supply and its development as well as nuclear safety was available and was included in the decision-making processes. The Union also wants to know whether and which German authorities, research institutes, experts, associations or companies dealing with energy supply and nuclear safety issues were in contact with the highest federal authorities and were included. Another question aims to determine whether departments in neighboring countries or at European and international institutions were also included.

“Cicero” bases its reporting on the topic on internal correspondence between the two ministries. A journalist from the magazine successfully sued for the release of the documents, which had been kept under lock and key until then.

Germany finally completed its nuclear phase-out on April 15, 2023, and shut down the last three reactors. The power plants were originally supposed to go offline at the turn of the year, but operations were extended to secure the electricity supply. The Greens had long resisted such a step, but finally supported the concept of a temporary operational reserve for two of the last three German nuclear power plants presented by Habeck and the nuclear power plant operators in September 2022. The FDP was fundamentally in favor of a longer operating period. In October 2022, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) then spoke out in favor of continuing to operate all three reactors until spring.

The German nuclear phase-out originally goes back to the decision of a black-yellow federal government under then Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU). This was a reaction to the nuclear disaster in Fukushima in 2011.