Parliament calls on Europe to learn from Chernobyl disaster

Europe should give full support to the precautionary principle, which states that it is essential to close and dismantle nuclear power stations at risk, particularly in some of the candidate countries, according to a European Parliament resolution on 3 May.

MEPs are also calling for financial assistance to be made available to Ukraine, Belarus and Russia to enable them to cope with the social and health consequences of the Chernobyl accident. Parliament also supports projects to study and assess the consequences of the accident and is calling for continuous measurement of radioactivity in the area, with increased efforts to restore the environment in the most contaminated regions from both the EU and G7.

Parliament is also calling on the European Commission to arrange an epidemiological study of the effects of Chernobyl throughout Europe as a whole in the light of new scientific evidence raising doubts about aspects of the currently accepted radiation risk model.

Recently, European Commission advisors called for €2 billion (£1.25 billion) for loans to enable more nuclear power plants to be built in EU accession countries and the former Soviet Union (see related story).