Adding to the G-20 to-do list

If this report is accurate, French president Nicolas Sarkozy will be adding another item to the already long list of agenda items for the G-20: The Europe Union’s energy chief said on Tuesday he wanted nuclear plants to undergo stress tests to prove their safety, not only in the 27 EU countries, but also in ...

By , a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies.

If this report is accurate, French president Nicolas Sarkozy will be adding another item to the already long list of agenda items for the G-20:

If this report is accurate, French president Nicolas Sarkozy will be adding another item to the already long list of agenda items for the G-20:

The Europe Union’s energy chief said on Tuesday he wanted nuclear plants to undergo stress tests to prove their safety, not only in the 27 EU countries, but also in neighbouring states.

"We want to organise a series of stress tests, of very comprehensive tests throughout the Union," EU energy commissioner Guenther Oettinger told reporters after a meeting of nuclear experts in Brussels.

"Safety is indivisible and that means we also want to able to have stress test for our partner states, our neighbours, and (French) President Sarkozy will be assuming responsibility in the G20 context for that."

Nuclear power provides about eighty percent of France’s energy so the country has a strong interest in bolstering public confidence in the sector. It’s doubtful other members will share the French ardor for addressing the issue in the G-20 context.  

David Bosco is a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. He is the author of The Poseidon Project: The Struggle to Govern the World’s Oceans. Twitter: @multilateralist

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