BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - The CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag is demanding comprehensive transparency from the federal government regarding the decision-making processes for the nuclear phase-out. A report by the magazine "Cicero", according to which internal concerns about the nuclear phase-out planned for the following year were allegedly suppressed in both the Ministry of Economics and the Ministry of the Environment in 2022 - which the Ministry of Economics denies.

"If the technical expertise of your institutions had to give way to party political considerations, then the processes and facts presented in the article "The anti-nuclear scam" are also suitable for fundamentally undermining trust in state institutions, even beyond the specific question of the continued operation of nuclear power plants.The two parliamentary group leaders Jens Spahn and Steffen Bilger (both CDU) wrote in a letter sent to Economics Minister Robert Habeck and Environment Minister Steffi Lemke (both Greens) on Thursday. It is available to the German Press Agency in Berlin.

"Cicero" bases its reporting on the subject on internal correspondence between the two ministries. Spahn and Bilger complain that the ministries have not complied with requests from the Bundestag to make the documents public. This should now happen, demand the two MPs, who also want to receive "all other decision-making and information bases and processes". "Further measures within the framework of parliamentary work to ensure comprehensive clarification and information for parliament and the public" are reserved.

The leadership of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group said: "We expressly reserve the right to set up a committee of inquiry. The willingness of Habeck and Lemke to be transparent is now very important."

On April 15, 2023, Germany finally completed the nuclear phase-out and shut down the last three nuclear power plants. The power plants should have originally been taken off the grid at the turn of the year before, but operation was extended to secure the power supply. The Greens had long resisted such a move, but ultimately supported the concept presented by Habeck and the nuclear power plant operators in September 2022 of a temporary operational reserve for two of the last three German nuclear power plants. The FDP was generally in favor of a longer service life. In October 2022, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) then put his foot down for the continued operation of all three nuclear power plants until spring /hrz/DP/mis