EU needs 'more nuclear,' European Commission president says

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called for the European Union to be more self-sufficient in energy production in a speech on Friday in Prague.

"When we speak about our energy, we have to produce our own energy, more renewables, more nuclear, more efficiency," she told a security conference in the Czech capital.

Nuclear energy in the EU however is hotly disputed with France pushing for the technology to get more public investment, and be a bigger part of the bloc's energy system, against stiff opposition from Germany.

As commission president, the German conservative politician has previously highlighted the role of nuclear in the EU's shift away from fossil fuels. But at the first-ever Nuclear Energy Summit in March, von der Leyen had to acknowledge views differ across the EU on the technology.

In Germany, after six decades of nuclear energy, the last three nuclear plants were shut down in April 2023.

The country was so alarmed by the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan in March 2011 that then-chancellor Angela Merkel announced a phase-out of nuclear power in the country.

Von der Leyen did not say in her speech in Prague if she considered a return to nuclear power was warranted in Germany but pointed to the all-out Russian invasion of Ukraine to bolster her overall argument.

Europe bought gas from Russia on the basis that "economic interdependence was the ultimate source of security," von der Leyen said.

"This was supposed to be the guarantee that Moscow would never start a new war on the old continent. This was an illusion," von der Leyen added.