Pro-nuclear Sweden urges more EU focus on energy security

OSLO (Reuters) - The European Commission must help secure energy independence for Europe by promoting baseload power production, including nuclear energy, Sweden's Energy and Industry Minister Ebba Busch said on Friday in her latest criticism of the continent's energy policies.

Baseload power plants such as nuclear reactors can maintain a stable output regardless of weather and other factors impacting intermittent energy sources such as solar and wind.

Countries in favour of expanding nuclear power generation argue that the European Union's energy policy sidelines the technology by not setting targets for it or by funding the construction of new reactors.

"Europe must now create an energy sector that secures our independence," Busch said in a video posted on Instagram ahead of a meeting of EU energy ministers in Brussels on Monday.

"Without energy, no industry. Without industry, no defence. No defence, no sovereignty," she said.

Representatives from several pro-nuclear EU countries including France, Belgium and the Netherlands are expected to meet on the sidelines of Monday's meeting to discuss how to further support the technology, Sweden said.

"Instead of opposing new baseload power, the European Commission must make a path for new baseload power in Europe," Busch said.

The minister has repeatedly spoken out against Europe's over-reliance on renewable energy expansion and has been particularly critical of Germany's decision to shut its fleet of nuclear reactors.

Sweden itself closed some of its nuclear plants over the past decade but the current government is taking a firmly pro-nuclear stance and is seeking to build new capacity.

The Nordic country last year also halted plans for an electricity interconnector with Germany, arguing that its construction could drive up prices in southern Sweden.

(Reporting by Terje Solsvik and Nora Buli, additional reporting by Kate Abnett, editing by Louise Rasmussen and Elaine Hardcastle)