Excellencies, dear colleagues,
It is a great pleasure to be with you today. And I do feel as a slight outlier, because as you may or may not know, Greece is not a nuclear country. We explored this possibility in the 1960s and 1970s, but we never made the commitment to nuclear energy. It was always a bit too expensive, a bit too different from what we were looking for. We also benefited from access to very cheap brown coal, lignite, so we never made the choice to go nuclear.
We have, in recent years, as many other colleagues, invested heavily in renewables. Twenty years ago, we generated more than half of our electricity from coal. Today we generate more than half of our electricity from wind and solar. Renewables have turned us from a net electricity importer to a net electricity exporter. They have lowered our prices and strengthened our energy security.
Given our superior resources, we will continue to invest in solar and wind, coupled with investments in batteries, pumped hydro and natural gas as a transitional fuel.
So why am I here? I am here because I recognize a basic reality highlighted by President Macron and by other colleagues. We cannot accomplish all the things we care about in Europe – strategic autonomy, economic competitiveness, decarbonization – without nuclear energy.
France knows this, so it is quite fitting to talk about this subject here, in Paris. This is a country that turned to nuclear in the aftermath of an oil shock. It was a bold policy choice, but also a major industrial undertaking. We used to build big things in Europe. I do believe we can do this again.
Europe, unfortunately, over the past years turned away from nuclear power. It was one of our biggest strategic mistakes. Here is a staggering statistic: in two decades, nuclear output in the European Union has declined by 276 TWh. In 2023, our total European solar output was 254 TWh. So, all the solar panels that we have installed in the EU over the past 20 years did not even make up for the loss from nuclear. This was an own goal.
But the tide is turning. Nuclear energy is clearly having a comeback. Countries with nuclear power want to build more reactors and countries that abandoned nuclear power are reexamining their position. This is a welcome shift.
I came to Paris today to announce that Greece is also turning the page. It is time for my country to explore whether nuclear energy, and specifically small modular reactors, can play a role in the Greek energy system.
We will set up a high-level ministerial committee to make a definite recommendation to the government on this front.
This is a common-sense position. Nuclear energy is changing quickly. There are rapid advances in technology, there is tremendous innovation. And we know that our need for electricity is only going to grow. So no matter how much we expand renewables, we will need long-term predictable baseload power. No technology can match what nuclear can offer us.
We know that nuclear power presents challenges. Public opinion in Greece, as in many other countries, is still divided. But I think we need to have an honest, thoughtful, non-ideological dialogue. But even beyond Greece, we see that this sector needs a rebirth. Especially in Europe, our workers have grown older or retired. We have lost critical expertise. Our regulations have become way too complex, projects take longer and unfortunately they cost much more than what was initially anticipated. But these are problems that we have created ourselves and they are problems we can solve. This is the only way forward.
Let me conclude by adding one specific use-case that I believe needs to be part of the conversation. It’s a topic Greece cares a lot about, and I’m referring to nuclear power in shipping. This is a proven technology that is already used for decades in military and other niche applications. At this point, we have no credible solutions to decarbonize shipping. Nuclear should be part of this conversation as well. It is a topic in which Greece plans to lead, separately from whether nuclear might have a role to play within Greece’s own system.
So, dear friends, this is a major day for Greece. We are writing a new chapter. Please consider Greece to be a friend of nuclear energy. Whether nuclear will end up playing a role in Greece remains to be seen. But at a time of great geopolitical upheaval, all options must be on the table. Our task is to make nuclear part of the solution again.
Thank you very much.
