European Commission ready to provide EUR 3 mln to IAEA missions to Ukrainian power substations

In light of Russia's potential attacks on Ukrainian nuclear power plants, the European Commission is ready to allocate an additional EUR 3 million to support the work of the IAEA missions to Ukrainian substations associated with nuclear power plants.

European Commissioner Kadri Simson announced this on Tuesday in Luxembourg at a press conference following the EU Council meeting on energy issues.

"We also discussed Ukraine's concerns about Russia's potential attacks on substations linked to nuclear power plants. And I have informed ministers today that the Commission is ready to mobilise an additional EUR 3 million to support the missions by the International Atomic Energy Agency to the substations," she said.

In addition, the European Commissioner said that she had reiterated her plea to the ministers of the EU member states "to continue donations to the Ukraine Energy Support Fund as well as contribute to the protection of Ukraine's critical energy infrastructure."

She recalled that more than half of the country's energy infrastructure has been destroyed by Russian attacks. "Nine gigawatts of power generation capacity has been lost since March this year. I witnessed myself the situation a couple of weeks ago during my recent visit to Kyiv with President von der Leyen. And to address Ukraine's needs for the winter, the Commission has proposed a three-pillar approach. Repair, connect and stabilise," Simson said, repeatingd the European Commission's previously published approach to this issue.

The European Commissioner said that "to repair, we aim to restore 2.5 gigawatts of capacity and we will continue to coordinate support." "And I today once again encourage ministers to step up efforts to provide spare parts and equipment. I very much welcome the recent significant donations from Estonia and Lithuania, totalling 560 megawatts of power generation capacity. I also welcome the generosity shown by member states and other donors following my appeal over the summer. And the resources available to the Ukraine Energy Support Fund have increased from EUR 500 million to EUR 750 million," she detailed.

The European Commission is also exploring possibilities to increase electricity export capacities. "And I urge ministers to give their support to this too. And finally, to stabilise, we are boosting decentralised energy production to increase the resilience of the system," Simson added.