EU Commission President Von der Leyen in Garching at the Max Planck Institute
Commission President von der Leyen visited the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Garching together with the Bavarian Minister President Markus Söder. She emphasised Europe's leading role in nuclear fusion research. She emphasised the need for increasing energy supply in the future and cited nuclear fusion as an important contribution. Bavaria is a European leader in this field, thanks to decades of systematic funding, she said. "It is crucial to continue to invest and drive research forward," said von der Leyen.
The Commission President described nuclear fusion as a safe, clean energy source with great potential and an ideal complement to renewable energies. However, further investment in this technology is needed.
"The European Union supports nuclear fusion through the Euratom research and training programme with 5.6 billion euros in the current EU budget, primarily through the ITER programme, the most important international fusion research project, to which the EU is the main contributor. This is the basis on which we can build."
The framework conditions for research and investment must be further improved, emphasised the President:
"We need to promote public-private research partnerships more strongly. [...] Secondly, we need to encourage industry to invest more in fusion technology. It would itself be one of the main beneficiaries. The deepening and completion of the Capital Markets Union at European level is crucial to provide young companies with the necessary capital. A completed Capital Markets Union would create 500 billion euros in additional investment opportunities per year. A clear mandate for politicians to make faster progress here.
Thirdly, there are many positive "spillover effects" from fusion research, for example in healthcare, space travel or robotics. These products can be used within the EU to develop new industries."