"Stalled"

The Federal Constitutional Court is to rule on utilities’ rights in their case against the government over the shut-down of nuclear power plants, Corinna Budras writes for FAZ. Nuclear power plant operators RWE, E.ON and Vattenfall are suing the German state for 19 billion euros in compensation for the government’s decision following the Fukushima disaster in 2011 to take power plants offline earlier than planned. Vattenfall is claiming 4.7 billion euros over the shut down of its Krümmel plant, the youngest of the plants concerned, which had its working life reduced by seven years. One of the rulings the court is to make Tuesday is whether Vattenfall, as a foreign company owned by the Swedish state, is allowed to file such a claim. Unlike the other utilities, Vattenfall does however have the right to bring the case to private tribunal in Washington, under the International Energy Charter that Germany signed up to in 1991.

For black ground see CLEW's Factsheet: Legal disputes over the nuclear phase-out