Ms Kadri Simson:

I thank the Senator. The answer to his first question is "Yes". We do plan to support member states that are still missing interconnections to the rest of Europe. The Celtic interconnector is a fine example and the Commission has co-financed the project. Ireland certainly needs additional interconnections. We also agreed last December with our co-legislators that we can now use TEN-E funds for financing offshore connections. Offshore parks are built in the regions where there are no connections and that might be a burden for private promoters. Countries can apply for co-financing for such projects. The North Seas Energy Cooperation, NSEC, is in place. It is a good organisation. Ireland has the presidency of the platform at the moment. We are planning a mesh screed at the sea-base level that will help us to upgrade offshore potential, which we strongly support.

The Senator also asked about taxonomy and why a second delegate Act covered some natural gas and nuclear investments. We have never financed nuclear power plants from EU funds. On the contrary, we have only co-financed three dismantling projects for the old pipes in the Chernobyl nuclear power plant that were built decades ago. Three member states, when they joined in 2004, committed to closing their nuclear facilities. That is the only financing from the EU that has been used in nuclear sites. We take care of nuclear safety and half of my directorate is doing dedicated work to keep the standards at the highest level. We run regular stress tests on nuclear sites. Despite that, some member states have informed us that they will achieve their climate neutrality targets with the help of nuclear power. That is their right because according to the treaty, member states can choose their energy mix. Through the taxonomy delegated Act, we will guide private investors towards these projects that are very restricted and meet the highest available standards. This is to avoid a situation where those private investors will finance a project that it is not meeting the highest standards. It is for private investors and, as such, based on the advice of an expert scientific panel, we thought it our duty to guide private financing to limited possible future investment.