Merkel's Nuclear Plans Are Legally Sound, German Minister Says
Merkel's Nuclear Plans Are Legally Sound, Minister Says
Michele Tantussi/Bloomberg
Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel at a news conference in Berlin.
Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel at a news conference in Berlin. Photographer: Michele Tantussi/Bloomberg
German Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle
John MacDougall/AFP/Getty Images
German Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle said "it's completely clear that the legal jurisdiction of nuclear policy lies with the federal government."
German Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle said "it's completely clear that the legal jurisdiction of nuclear policy lies with the federal government." Photographer: John MacDougall/AFP/Getty Images
German government plans to prolong the use of nuclear power are “watertight,” Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle said, rebuffing opposition claims that a bid to enact the law without putting it to the upper house would break constitutional rules.
“The interior and justice ministries spent months very carefully preparing the legal framework for an extension,” Bruederle said in an interview with ARD television in Berlin today. “I’m fully convinced that it is legally watertight.”
Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sept. 6 announced a deal struck with utilities including E.ON AG and RWE AG to extend the running time of Germany’s 17 nuclear-power plants by an average of 12 years. Germany’s opposition groups are stepping up their campaign against the nuclear plans as Merkel seeks to steer the bill granting the extension through parliament this fall.
Merkel’s Cabinet is set to approve the plan on Sept. 28. Merkel then intends to put it to the lower house, where she has a majority, without seeking the approval of the upper chamber, the Bundesrat, where her bloc is outnumbered by the opposition. Legal opinion is divided on whether Merkel can bypass the Bundesrat, where Germany’s 16 states are represented.
Prospects ‘Mixed’
“The prospects for E.ON and RWE are still mixed,” WestLB AG analysts Peter Wirtz and Sebastian Zank wrote in a note to clients today. The Dusseldorf-based analysts have “neutral” recommendations on shares in both E.ON and RWE.
“The nuclear compromise seems to end up in slight positive territory,” Wirtz and Zank said. Even so, “there is still the political risk coupled with the plan to exclude the upper house in the final nuclear decision.”
Dusseldorf-based E.ON’s shares were up 20 cents, or 0.9 percent, at 23.46 euros in Frankfurt trading as of 2:04 p.m., the first increase in two days. Essen-based RWE shares rose 3 cents to 53.49 euros. E.ON and RWE, Germany’s two biggest utilities, are still among the worst performing companies on the benchmark DAX index this year, dropping about 20 percent. Of the 30 companies listed, only Heidelberg Cement AG has fared worse.
Bruederle, whose ministry crafted the nuclear plan along with the Environment Ministry, said it is “completely clear that the legal jurisdiction of nuclear policy lies with the federal government” and not with the states, according to a separate ARD interview late yesterday.
Doubts Denied
The Environment Ministry was yesterday forced to deny a report in the Bild am Sonntag newspaper that Environment Minister Norbert Roettgen himself cast doubt on the legal validity of the government’s nuclear extension.
Roettgen told lawmakers in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia that the Federal Constitutional Court probably would’t approve the government’s planned extension of atomic plant running times by an average of 12 years, Bild reported. Instead, the court would likely accept 5 years, it cited him as saying.
Merkel, whose government is near historic lows in opinion polls, was lauded by her party after winning agreement with her coalition factions and the utilities for the nuclear extension. A previous Social Democrat-led government with the Greens approved the phase-out of nuclear power by about 2022. The Greens, enjoying record high support, have said that Merkel will face a “new dimension” of protest over the nuclear extension.
Five Social Democratic state prime ministers have written a joint letter to Merkel making clear that they will challenge her plans at the constitutional court if she tries to introduce her energy bill without putting it to the Bundesrat, the Rheinpfalz am Sonntag newspaper reported Sept. 11.
To contact the reporter on this story: Patrick Donahue in Berlin at at pdonahue1@bloomberg.net.
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