Austria govt to sue EU Commission over expansion of Hungary nuclear plant

Austria said on Monday it planned to sue the European Commission for allowing Hungary to expand its Paks atomic plant, Reuters reports. Austria shares a border with Hungary and does not have any nuclear plants of its own. “There are sufficient reasons to sue [the Commission],” a spokesman for Austrian Sustainability Minister Elisabeth Koestinger said. “EU assistance is only permissible when it is built on common interest. For us, nuclear energy is neither a sustainable form of energy supply, nor is it an answer to climate change.” Last March, EU state aid regulators approved Hungary’s plan to build two new reactors at its Paks nuclear site with the help of Russia’s Rosatom, saying Hungarian authorities had agreed to several measures to ensure fair competition.