German government must compensate nuclear power companies: federal court
Xinhua, December 6, 2016 Adjust font size:
German federal government must compensate three nuclear power companies for their losses due to the nuclear phaseout policy, said the highest court Tuesday.
A relevant regulation will be made by June next year, paving the way for the companies' pursuit of compensation, according to the court.
Germany's Eon, RWE and Sweden's Vattenfall, plaintiffs of the lawsuit, claimed the nuclear phaseout policy of German government five years ago resulted in their huge financial losses, also constituted property expropriation.
Johannes Teyssen, chief of EON, told the court earlier that the companies respected the political choice to give up on nuclear energy, but they should not foot the bill alone.
Critics, however, have countered that the big energy companies benefited from massive government subsidies when the nuclear plants first went into operation.
After Japan's Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011, the federal government decided to shut down all nuclear power plants within Germany by 2021.
A total of eight nuclear plants are in operation at present in Germany. Endit