Austria appeals against Hungary’s Paks nuclear aid, EU court adviser agrees

An advocate general of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) on Thursday proposed that the court should uphold an appeal by Austria contesting the European Commission’s approval of state aid for an upgrade of Hungary’s Paks nuclear power plant.

The CJEU had dismissed the action by Austria in November 2022. Advocate General Laila Medina proposed the court should uphold the appeal, arguing that the EC was required to take into account the possible infringement of provisions of EU law other than those relating to state aid with regard to the award of the Paks II upgrade to Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod Engineering. She also said the court had failed to carry out a sufficient review of the EC’s assessment of the proportionality of the state aid.

The EC cleared the aid for the construction of two blocks at the Paks plant, Hungary’s sole commercial source of nuclear energy, in the spring of 2017.

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