EU approves nuclear pact with Kazakhstan

European Union states yesterday approved a pact covering broad cooperation on nuclear energy with Kazakhstan, the world's third-biggest producer of uranium, as part of efforts to diversify European energy supplies.

The agreement, approved by EU justice ministers in Brussels, covers cooperation on the peaceful use of atomic energy in areas such as increasing nuclear safety, controlled nuclear fusion, research and development, and trade in nuclear materials.

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev was expected to rubber-stamp the agreement with the European Commission later in the day, yesterday during an official visit to Belgium.

The EU's executive Commission said in October it expected the value of work with the former Soviet central Asian state to be worth u500 million over the next decade, and include the exchange of technical information and development of joint projects and programmes.

Kazakhstan has a fifth of the world's known reserves of uranium and is the substance's third-biggest producer after Australia and Canada. But it accounts for just three per cent of uranium deliveries to EU utilities at present. The European Union is seeking to wean itself away from its heavy reliance on Russian energy imports.

The European nuclear industry is large and growing, and its backers cite it as a way to cover European energy needs without the impact on the climate associated with carbon-based fuel.

The European Commission yesterday urged the bloc to boost ties with neighbours to the east and south that are vital for future energy supplies. It called for billions of euros in loans and investment to help members of its so-called European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) improve energy and other infrastructure and steps to makeit easier for their citizens to visit the EU.

In a policy paper, the EU executive also urged greater efforts by the EU to help resolve "frozen conflicts" left over from the Cold War in former Soviet states bordering Russia, and a stronger diplomatic presence in the EU's neighbours.

"We cannot buy reforms in these countries. What we can do is support them," EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner, who authored the paper, told a news briefing.

"It will require political will and effort on the EU side. But the potential cost of not supporting reform on our borders would be very great," she warned.