The German news magazine, Der Spiegel, reported this week that Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government will continue to use public money to guarantee the construction of nuclear power stations in other countries, despite a programme to shut down nuclear power plants in Germany itself.

The government is set to ignore a unanimous vote by the Bundestag’s (parliament’s) Committee for Sustainable Development to stop financial backing for foreign nuclear energy projects.

Chairman of the committee, Andreas Jung, from Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union, said it was "a gross contradiction that we are pushing forwards with the change in energy generation while supporting atomic energy abroad."

Despite Mr Jung’s protestations, the committee is set to receive a letter from Economy Minister Philipp Rosler, rejecting such a strategy, according to Der Spiegel on Sunday.

The change in energy policy only applies to domestic production, the letter says. The government considers it a "sovereign decision of other states to choose a different construction for their own energy policy."



The government is currently promoting its policy with the slogan, "High time that something changed", while Environment Minister Peter Almaier has been talking of establishing an international club of countries stepping away from nuclear energy.



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