Spoedvergadering Raad Vervoersbeleid, Telecommunicatie en Energie over nucleaire kwestie (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU energy ministers will meet for an emergency meeting in Brussels on Monday (21 March), with German Chancellor Angela Merkel i calling over the weekend for the implementation of common safety standards at Europe's nuclear power plants.

The energy ministers will discuss potential oil and gas supply disruptions arising from ongoing turmoil in northern Africa and the Middle East, although much of the debate will centre on defining suitable criteria for a series of nuclear 'stress tests' throughout Europe.

Member states broadly agreed on the need for the tests last week, although many of the details remain vague.

Merkel on Saturday called for common safety standards at Europe's nuclear power plants, currently 143 in total, in order to avoid incidents similar to those in Japan.

"We have standardised all sorts of things in the European Union, from the size of apples to the shape of bananas, and we could also really talk about common safety measures for all the nuclear centres in Europe," she said in her weekly podcast.

A 2009 EU directive calls on member states to implement International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safety standards, with a compliance deadline of this summer.

Merkel's latest call comes as her centre-right Christian Democrat (CUU) party faces a growing challenge from Germany's anti-nuclear Green party in upcoming regional elections.

Industry officials criticised her apparent about-turn on nuclear energy policy last week, with Berlin hastily announcing plans to halt production at seven of the country's 17 nuclear plants.

Later in the week Merkel was heckled by opposition MPs as she called for a "measured exit" from nuclear power, having originally decided in 2010 to extend the life of Germany's 17 nuclear power plants by 12 years.

Preliminary results suggest the CUU party is set to keep control in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt after elections on Sunday, the first of three regional votes on consecutive weekends.

The party looks set to drop 3.7 percentage points to 32.5 percent however, a more modest fall compared with the electoral thrashing suffered in Hamburg last month when the CUU fell 20 points.

Regional elections in Germany determine the makeup of the country's upper parliamentary chamber, the Bundesrat, with Merkel's CDU already losing its majority last year.

Next weekend sees elections in the key state of Baden-Wurttemberg, with latest polls suggesting that the current CDU state premier may be replaced by one from the Greens.

Despite events in Germany, other EU states have signaled that Japan's accident is unlikely to alter their nuclear energy plants.

EU energy commissioner Gunther Oettinger i has called on EU neighbouring states to participate in the upcoming stress tests, but a spokesperson for the Swiss federal government indicated over the weekend that the country did not have plans to take part.