Christophe Grudler – the European Parliament’s nuclear man

Since his election in 2019, liberal French MEP Christophe Grudler has become the figurehead for nuclear power energy in the European Parliament. Euractiv spoke to the Renew lawmaker, who is running for a second term in the Parliament. 

Having tiptoed into the European Parliament in 2019, the MEP quickly made a name for himself with his outspoken support for nuclear power.

Within the Renew group, Grudler set out to transform his early ideas into reality. When the ‘green wave’ hit Europe in 2019, “I preferred the Industry, Research and Energy  Committee, when everyone ran to the Environment Committee,” Grudler told Euractiv.

A strategic choice: The entry of Russian tanks into Ukraine on 22 February 2022 signaled that war had returned to Europe and helped turn upside down the EU’s energy and industrial policies.

As a first move, Grudler proposed a counter-amendment to the European Parliament’s resolution on COP25, saying that nuclear power has a role in the fight against climate change.

“Following this, I contacted the MEPs who had voted for my counter-amendment to form a (cross-party parliamentary) ‘intergroup’ on nuclear power,” he explained. “There were 80 of us at the beginning, 120 at the end of the mandate.”

The hot file

Galvanised, Grudler became Renew’s shadow rapporteur for the revision of the Renewable Energy Directive (RED), “the biggest files of the mandate”, he believe.

He negotiated to include nuclear in the new version of the Renewable Energy Directive (RED). He did not fully win the battle, but as a result, the targets for renewable deployments were reduced, meaning less pressure on pro-nuclear countries, like France.

Grudler gained in stature. So much so that he – tentatively – opposed in May 2023 the last attempt by the French government to ensure that hydrogen produced from nuclear power should be included in RED. For Grudler, it was not the purpose of the text.

Industry, from Belfort to Strasbourg

Thanks to his parliamentary work, Grudler is now consulted occasionally by the French government, and was even approached to fill the position of an energy state secretary – although the idea was subsequently abandoned.

“My name was circulated, but I remained focused on my work and dossiers to be dealt with, such as the Net-Zero industry act (NZIA)”, Grudler said. He fought – as Renew’s lead lawmaker on the file – for nuclear power to be included in the text.

Grudler is no stranger to the industrial world. He was born in Belfort, in the historic French industrial region of Franche-Comté, which hosted giants such as Peugeot and Alstom, for which his family worked for decades.

But Grudler preferred journalism and politics to the boiler suit. In 1998, he joined the departmental council of the Territoire de Belfort. For years, he travelled the length and breadth of eastern France, as a journalist and politician.

In 2007, he “fully embraced” François Bayrou’s Mouvement Démocrate (Modem, Renew), and was an early supporter of French President Emmanuel Macron. As the Modem’s Franche-Comté representative, he was 20th on Macron’s list for the 2019 EU elections.

Breton’s friend

After industry and energy, Grudler also took care of defence and space files, which brought him close to fellow Frenchman Thierry Breton, the EU’s internal market commissioner. He worked with him during the NZIA negotiations for example.

“Christophe Grudler plays a very important role in the European Parliament”, the Commissioner confirmed on Tuesday (5 June), while another former colleague acknowledged to Euractiv:

“The issues that he [Grudler] deals with have grown in importance”. “He knows his subjects, even if he is sometimes almost gullible in his enthusiasm”.

Still, not everyone is impressed.

At a forum in Belfort in October 2023, his talk on natural hydrogen left Mikaa Blugeon-Mered, a specialist in the geopolitics of hydrogen at Sciences Po taken aback. In a post on Linkedin she wrote that “[Grudler] literally rehashed all the clichés, myths and fantasies” on the subject.

Second term

Despite this sometimes misfiring charm, Grudler has gone from strength to strength and is 12th on Macron’s list for the EU elections in France on 8-9 June.

“The fact that I’m back on the list is a signal that I’m going to keep going”, Grudler said delightedly.

If he returns to the European Parliament, he sees many energy policy issues still to come: Low-carbon hydrogen, investment in the transition, and “technological neutrality in all European texts”.

[Edited by Donagh Cagney/Zoran Radosavljevic]

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