On the proposal for a Council regulation establishing the nuclear decommissioning assistance programme of the Ignalina nuclear power plant in Lithuania for the period 2028-2034, and repealing Regulation (EU) 2021/101

for the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy on the proposal for a Council regulation establishing the nuclear decommissioning assistance programme of the Ignalina nuclear power plant in Lithuania for the period 2028-2034, and repealing Regulation (EU) 2021/101

(COM(2025)0476 – C100271/2025 – 2025/0268(NLE))

The Committee on Budgets has carried out a budgetary assessment of the proposal under Rule 58 of the Rules of Procedure and has reached the following conclusions:

The Committee on Budgets,

A.whereas the nuclear decommissioning assistance programme for the Ignalina nuclear power plant in Lithuania (Ignalina programme) is intended to assist Lithuania in addressing the safety challenges associated with the decommissioning of a nuclear power plant, while generating knowledge to be shared with other EU Member States and non-EU countries for their own decommissioning activities; whereas the proposed programme is a continuation of activities that have been conducted since the early 2000s and are expected to run until 2049;

B.whereas nuclear safety is a public good, and past programmes have demonstrated the added value of collecting and disseminating knowledge linked to nuclear safety and the decommissioning of nuclear power plants;

C.whereas high levels of nuclear safety limit the risks associated with the management of nuclear facilities;

D.whereas the EU’s financial and technical contribution to the decommissioning of the Ignalina power plant is enshrined in Lithuania’s Accession Treaty as a demonstration of European solidarity;

1.Agrees that the programme envelope should be set at EUR 678 000 000 in current prices (EUR 602 720 000 in 2025 prices) in order to fulfil the programme’s objectives;

2.Considers that sufficient human and technical resources must be available from the outset and throughout the entire programming period of the 2028-2034 multiannual financial framework to ensure the effective implementation of the Ignalina programme;

3.Stresses that decommissioning activities meet long-term legal and technical obligations; considers, therefore, that stable and predictable financial programming is a condition for sound budgetary management;

4.Takes note of the suggested complementarity between the Ignalina programme and other programmes, such as the Instrument for Nuclear Safety Cooperation and Decommissioning and the Cohesion Fund; stresses that enhanced complementarity between instruments must not come at the expense of expenditure traceability or the prerogatives of the budgetary authority; stresses, in this regard, that any such contribution must be duly reflected in the programme performance statement for the Ignalina programme; insists that the budgetary authority retain full control over how resources are combined across instruments and over the effective contribution of each programme to EU priorities, specifically through detailed budgetary nomenclature; stresses that enhanced complementarity between programmes must not lead to disproportionate complexity for beneficiaries; calls for EU funding to be clearer, more accessible and more coherent in order to facilitate uptake and maximise the impact of investments;

5.Stresses that the use of external assigned revenue under the Ignalina programme must be clearly circumscribed, fully transparent and subject to effective parliamentary scrutiny; takes note, in that regard, of the provisions relating to additional financial contributions from any participating non-EU countries and other donors; underlines that, should the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy consider amending the provisions relating to external assigned revenue, this should be done in coordination with the Committee on Budgets and the other committees in order to ensure a consistent approach;

6.Recalls the proposal for a regulation establishing a budget expenditure tracking and performance framework and other horizontal rules for the Union programmes and activities (performance regulation), which establishes a single streamlined list of performance indicators and monitoring and evaluation provisions, some of which are relevant to the Ignalina programme; underlines that any change to the architecture, objectives and eligible actions under the programme will need to be appropriately reflected in Annex I of the performance regulation, as part of the process of amending and negotiating that regulation; points out that while sectoral legislation can supplement the performance regulation, for instance as regards programme evaluations, it should remain consistent with the provisions of that regulation;

7.Recalls that under Article 6(2) and (3) of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2024/2509 (Financial Regulation), a general regime of conditionality in cases of breaches of the the rule of law applies to the establishment and implementation of the budget; underlines, furthermore, that the Member States and the Commission must, in the implementation of the budget, ensure compliance with the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and respect the values on which the EU is founded, as enshrined in Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union.

As part of its budgetary assessment, the Committee on Budgets also submits the following amendments to the proposal:

Amendment 1

Proposal for a regulation

Article 4 – Paragraph 1

The rapporteur for budgetary assessment declares under his exclusive responsibility that he did not include in his budgetary assessment input from interest representatives falling within the scope of the Interinstitutional Agreement on a mandatory transparency register, or from representatives of public authorities of third countries, including their diplomatic missions and embassies, to be listed in this Annex pursuant to Article 8 of Annex I to the Rules of Procedure.