The new EU energy commissioner Dan Jorgensen has told pro-nuclear ministers that nuclear energy is needed for decarbonisation and there is “no question around the need to have a nuclear on board”.

His comments were reported by France’s minister of ecological transition, energy, climate and risk prevention, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, who had expressed concerns to Jorgensen that a possible 2040 European renewables target excluded nuclear energy.

The concerns were raised by Pannier-Runacher at a meeting in Brussels of 15 countries on 16 December, 12 of them part of a pro-nuclear alliance.