The European General Court has dismissed a case brought by the Austrian government to annul the European Commission's decision to approve state aid for the Paks II nuclear power plant in Hungary.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has held a groundbreaking ceremony at its Seibersdorf facility near Vienna to mark the start of construction on a new nuclear applications laboratories building. The building will house three laboratories: Plant Breeding and Genetics, Terrestrial Environment and Radiochemistry, and Nuclear Science and Instrumentation.

Slovakian regulators have made the decision to permit commissioning of Mochovce unit 3, bringing to an end several years of delays to address appeals by the Austrian anti-nuclear group Global 2000.

The European Court of Justice has rejected Austria's appeal against the European Commission's 2014 decision to approve the UK's support for the Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant, which is under construction in Somerset, England. The Court of Justice, the supreme court of the European Union in matters of EU law, agreed with the Commission that the project is in line with EU state aid rules.

A ceremony was held today to mark the official opening of a state-of-the-art laboratory building, named after former International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Yukiya Amano, at the agency's Seibersdorf site outside Vienna, Austria. The new facility will increase the IAEA's capacity to assist countries in fighting and preventing transboundary animal and zoonotic diseases like COVID-19, and to tackle challenges related to climate change and food safety.

The European Court of Justice should dismiss an appeal brought by Austria in respect of the European Commission's approval of state aid for the planned Hinkley Point C (HPC) nuclear power plant in the UK, Advocate General Gerard Hogan has concluded. His opinion will be taken into account when the European Court of Justice rules on Austria's appeal of the General Court's 2018 decision to reject the case.

Austria failed to dent the Visegrád Group of countries' enthusiasm for nuclear power as a solution to climate change during their meeting in Prague yesterday. This was evident during a press conference held after the V4 and Austria summit by Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and the Czech, Hungarian, Polish and Slovak prime ministers, Andrej Babiš, Viktor Orbán, Mateusz Morawiecki and Peter Pellegrini, respectively.

Austria has launched a lawsuit against the European Commission for its approval of Hungarian state subsidies for the construction of two new reactors at the Paks nuclear power plant.

Austria plans to sue the European Commission for allowing Hungary to expand its Paks nuclear power plant, Austrian Sustainability Minister Elisabeth Köstinger said yesterday. In a statement by the Federal Ministry of Sustainability and Tourism, Köstinger said: "It is a wrong signal if the European Commission classifies subsidies for the construction of nuclear power plants as harmless to energy policy."