Fischler: "We need an energy revolution"[fr][de] 

Former agriculture commissioner Fischler was one of the speakers at a renewable energy seminar organised by the EPP-ED Group in the European Parliament on the day of the Chernobyl 20th anniversary. During the press conference preceeding the actual seminar, Austrian MEP Agnes Schierhuber urged the EU to invest more in renewable energies rejecting a possible "nuclear renaissance".

Kent Nyström, the President of the Swedish Bioenergy Association, mentioned the Swedish government plans to end its oil dependence by 2020 because "we are running out of oil and gas". He also advocated more use of bio-energy.

Former commissioner Franz Fischler supported Mrs Schierhuber's view on nuclear power by pointing to three arguments against a nuclear revival:

• it would confirm our energy dependence as the uranium for nuclear also needs to be imported and uranium is a finite resource;
• the disposal of nuclear waste is still not resolved;
• and nuclear power puts the issue of national sovereignty over the energy mix in question as a potential accident never stays within national borders.

Pointing to the policy measures he introduced as farm commissioner to stimulate bio-energy, Mr Fischler said that experts might differ on the date when the oil production will peak, but "we are running out of time" to make the shift from a fossil-fuel economy to a low-carbon one. "We need an energy revolution ("eine Energie Wende") and a common European Energy Policy", Fischler concluded.