MPs in the Chamber of Representatives have voted by a large majority to repeal a 2003 law for the phasing out of nuclear power production in Belgium. The bill to repeal the 2003 ‘Nuclear Exit Act’ had been tabled by the 5 parties that make up the federal coalition. In addition to the Flemish nationalists, socialists and Christian democrats and the Francophone liberals and centrists, the opposition parties Vlaams Belang (far-right) and Open VLD (Flemish liberals) also voted to repeal the ‘Nuclear Exit Act’. The Francophone socialists, the far-left PVDA-PTB and the Flemish and Francophone greens voted against the repeal bill.
The 2003 ‘Nuclear Exit Act’ set a date for the closure of Belgium's 7 nuclear reactors and prohibited the construction of new nuclear energy production facilities. During the past 20 years it has been amended several times to allow a number of nuclear reactors to remain open for longer than had been originally planned.
A commitment to nuclear power
Two of the parties in the current federal coalition, the Flemish nationalists and the Francophone liberals have long been committed to a repeal. With the green parties no longer in government, an agreement on the issue with the other coalition parties was swiftly reached.
The current federal government's coalition agreement shows a much stronger commitment to nuclear energy than Belgium has demonstrated in the past.
However, repealing the act does not mean the government can immediately start building new nuclear power stations.
“A turning point”
The Federal Energy minister Mathieu Bihet (Francophone liberal) described Thursday vote as "a turning point”
"By passing a bill that paves the way for the return of nuclear energy by a large majority, the federal parliament has put 2 decades of deadlock and hesitation behind it and is embracing a realistic and resilient energy model".
"With the new act, Belgium is finally equipping itself to guarantee an energy mix based on the reality of today. Rather than pitting energy sources against each other in a binary and sterile way, we will use them pragmatically and in a way in which they complement each other.”