The Covid-19 pandemic and recent controversies over vaccines have shown the need to keep critical knowledge, capabilities, technologies and infrastructure - including that related to nuclear energy - inside the European Union, an alliance of non-governmental organisations said in a letter to European commission president Ursula von der Leyen.

The Brussels-based weCare alliance, which includes NGOs promoting a technology neutral and very low-carbon energy mix to reduce CO2 emissions and limit climate change, said nuclear energy is a geopolitical challenge, for the European Union and needs to be supported and developed, as is done in many other parts of the world, if a clean, affordable and reliable energy mix for a sustainable European society is to be delivered.

The Covid-19 vaccine crisis highlights the importance for the European Union to have a reliable indigenous supply of energy for the common good. Since the energy must be very low-carbon, nuclear energy is key, the letter said.

“If the European Union does not proactively pursue this route, it will be a recipe for yet another geopolitical failure, and it will not be in the interests of European society as a whole,” weCare said in the letter, which was also addressed to commission vice-president Frans Timmermans, financial affairs commissioner Mairead McGuinness and energy commissioner Kadri Simson.