Ankara develops nuclear energy it with Russia’s Rosatom. And Greece wants to revive it in an anti-Turkish perspective

Brussels – There is the Russian-Ukrainian war, with the Euro-Atlantic response of sanctions and actions aimed at weakening Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war machine. And then there is Turkey, NATO’s second-largest contingent, which continues to work closely with Rosatom, the Russian state-owned company, to revive its nuclear power. The first reactor at the Akkuyu power plant, a Turkish site on the sea facing Cyprus, is scheduled to be commissioned in October this year. The collaboration started before the events of February 2022, that is, before the beginning of Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine, and that was not interrupted for economic, commercial, legal, and, of course, political reasons. However, the Ankara government has no intention of stopping new contracts. On the contrary, it looks to its Russian partner for new investments in atomic energy.

Turkey’s Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar made no secret of looking to the Russians to build the Sinop nuclear power plant. For now, it is only a project involving G7 and G20 countries that are so vocal against Russia. There is Japan in the consortium project (through Mitsubishi), France (through Areva), and the United States (through Westinghouse). Then, in October 2022, with the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian conflict, talks and negotiations started with Rosatom, the Russian giant.

All this is creating restlessness in the European Parliament. In particular, the Greek MEP Emmanouil Fragkos, a member of Greek Solution, a Euroskeptic nationalist formation sitting among the Conservative (ECR) benches, denounces it, but not from a political perspective. He does not make it a matter of consistency with the measures taken so far against Putin’s Russia and efforts to support Ukraine but a strategic and economic issue.

“The construction of a nuclear power plant near Akkuyu, together with Turkey’s talks with Russia, the USA, South Korea, China and Japan on the construction of additional plants, will result in a huge, unacceptable energy imbalance, further increasing Turkey’s attractiveness for investments,” the MEP said. In his question filed on July 27, the MEP calls for a response to Turkish competition, to shift investment to Europe, starting with Greece. Such is the case, he asks the EU executive, “How can Greece apply for long-term targeted funding for the earliest possible production of nuclear energy?”

There are 13 EU member states with active nuclear reactors. The Greek Republic is part of the other half of the Union without atomic energy production. With the support of Rosatom, Turkey’s energy policy is prompting Fragkos to push for a change of course. “It is time for Greece to start having its nuclear energy production overcoming the troublemakers of the green NGOs,” the MEP wrote on his X profile. Words and initiatives that show at least two types of problems for the EU promoting sustainability and calling to support Kyiv: environmentalists are a drag for some policies, posing the problem of coexistence between civil society and policymakers; partners are bypassing the EU of the 14 sanctions packages against Russia that continue to enrich the Kremlin and its companies: all in a context that undermines the strategic autonomy of the EU.