European Commission President presents strategy to boost use of nuclear energy

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has presented a European strategy for nuclear energy, in an effort to combine atomic power with renewable energy to ensure the EU's energy independence, security of supply and competitiveness.

The Strategy for the development and deployment of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) in Europe aims for the technology to be operational in the EU by the early 2030s.

Von der Leyen, who was speaking at the Nuclear Energy Summit in Paris on 10/03/2026, explained that industrial competitiveness would be determined by affordable electricity, especially "who can best produce, transport, store and use it".

She also said that the Commission proposed to invest over €5 billion in the next budget on fusion research. "The nuclear tech race is on. But we know that Europe has everything it needs to lead: we have half a million highly skilled workers in nuclear, far more than the US and China. We lead global innovation in modular reactors. And now we have the ambition to move at speed and scale for Europe to be a global hub of next-generation nuclear energy,…