A group in the European Parliament welcomed Taiwan's decision to halt construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant and urged President Chen Shui-bian (
The group, Greens/European Freedom Alliance, made the remarks in a press release on Thursday night. The group is comprised of 46 members of the European Parliament, with 36 of them being from the Green Party.
Paul Lannoye, president of the Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament, said the Taiwan government had made a courageous decision in scrapping the power plant project.
He hailed the government's decision to remove the country's reliance on a technology that has no future as being in tune with the world trend.
Lannoye expressed the hope that this will be just a first step in Taiwan's forgoing of what he called a dangerous and costly way of generating power, adding that Taiwan could become the first country in Asia to renounce the use of nuclear power.
He also said he hopes the Taiwan government's decision will be emulated by the other governments in the region.
Those who are in favor of nuclear power in Taiwan have expressed worries that power will be in short supply in the future, that Taiwan's business credibility will be undermined, and that Taiwan may not be able to get access to technology, said Lannoye, noting that similar statements had been advocated by pro-nuclear activists within the EU.
He stressed that these outcomes have failed to take place in European countries that have forgone nuclear power and that more and more EU countries are turning their backs on this form of energy.
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