Belgium’s Parliament has voted to drop the country’s planned nuclear phaseout. The motion was passed with 102 votes in favor, eight against and 31 abstentions. Energy Minister Mathieu Bihet of the centre-right Reformist Movement party said, This is not just an energy reform; it is a decisive step for the economic, environmental, and strategic future of our country.

In 2003, Belgium had passed a law for the gradual phaseout of nuclear energy. The law stipulated that nuclear power plants were to be closed by 2025 at the latest while prohibiting the construction of new reactors. In 2022, Belgium delayed the phaseout by 10 years, with plans to run one reactor in each of its two plants as a backup due to energy uncertainty triggered by the Russia-Ukraine conflict. According to the International Energy Agency, nuclear energy makes up around 40 per cent of Belgium’s power generation.

Other European countries are also mulling a nuclear policy shift. The Netherlands and Sweden are planning to build new nuclear plants while Italy’s government opened the door to a return to nuclear energy earlier this year.