European Union energy ministers are holding talks in Luxembourg to try and defuse a spat between Germany and France over nuclear subsidies. France is a strong nuclear power proponent, Germany just shut its reactors down.
Energy ministers of European Union nations are meeting in Luxembourg on Tuesday, as they attempt to break a deadlock between Germany and France over the future competitiveness of industrial sectors.
The spat between the two European countries has been delaying an agreement on power market reforms.
"I expect it might take some time but overall the mood is favorable to reach a general approach today," EU energy commissioner Kadri Simson said on her arrival to the meeting of EU energy ministers in Luxembourg.
What are the proposed new rules?
In March, the European Commission proposed changes to the EU's electricity market after cuts to Russian gas supplies led to sky-rocketing EU power prices last year.
The new rules are aimed at protecting consumers from volatile fossil fuel markets with a shift to more long-term, fixed-price contracts.
Germany has raised concerns that a provision in the new regulation allowing subsidized prices for nuclear power could ultimately skew competition in the European bloc to the advantage of countries with vast nuclear power production, such as France.
"Anything that creates a distortion between nuclear and renewables is not good for Europeans because it will increase the European prices," French Energy Minister Agnes Pannier Runacher said on Tuesday.
She said that there should be no competition distortion if nuclear power has roughly the same cost as renewable energy.
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