The European import ban on Russian hard coal, which was decided at the beginning of April, went smoothly.

The EU member states have been wrestling with an oil embargo for weeks.

After that, two more steps would have to follow in order to end energy dependence on Russia: a freeze on natural gas imports - and the end of civil nuclear cooperation.

Christian Geinitz

Business correspondent in Berlin

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Thomas Gutschker

Political correspondent for the European Union, NATO and the Benelux countries based in Brussels.

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Stephen Lowenstein

Political correspondent based in Vienna.

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Michael Wiegel

Political correspondent based in Paris.

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Both topics get down to business, although nuclear cooperation is hardly an issue in public.

The fact that it has not yet been severed shows how close the atomic ties are.

At the end of April, Germany made a first push in Brussels.

The German EU ambassador demanded that civil nuclear imports from Russia should now also be stopped during the internal consultations on the forthcoming sixth package of sanctions.

However, he was only supported by Austria, while Hungary vehemently opposed it.

As diplomats reported, France - which currently holds the Council Presidency - avoided the issue.

When the European Commission proposed an oil embargo and other measures a week later, there was no longer any talk of civilian nuclear technology.

The most important customer for French turbines

The Elysee is keen to note that Paris would not block possible EU sanctions against Russia's nuclear industry.

But France maintains close ties to the Russian state nuclear power company Rosatom.

The nuclear sector has so far been exempt from the “total economic and financial war against Russia” that French finance minister Bruno Le Maire declared at the beginning of March.

French and American economic interests are closely intertwined.

In 2015, the French Minister for Economic Affairs at the time, Emmanuel Macron, arranged the sale of Alstom's turbine business to the American group GE.

Since then, GE Steam Power has been producing the "Arabelle" turbines required for nuclear power plants, such as those built by Rosatom abroad, for example in the NATO member state Turkey.

The United States, for its part, buys more than $1 billion worth of enriched uranium from Rosatom every year.

The Russian nuclear company is the most important customer for the "Arabelle" turbines, which are largely manufactured in Belfort, and now wants to help the French electricity supplier EDF to buy back GE's turbine division.

The newspaper "Le Figaro" recently reported, citing government circles, that the French state had approved a planned shareholder pact, according to which Rosatom is to have a 20 percent stake in the capital.

Former EDF chief Henri Proglio is a member of Rosatom's international council and has categorically ruled out resigning because of the war.

The French power plant operator Framatome signed a "strategic agreement" for long-term cooperation with Rosatom in December 2021.

In Paris it is said that the agreement is on hold, but it has not been cancelled.

France has its own reprocessing plant in La Hague, but is increasingly using enriched uranium to reprocess used fuel rods from Rosatom in Seversk, Siberia.