BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - German Economics Minister Robert Habeck has rejected the FDP's call for an expert commission on the future of nuclear power plants in Germany. The Green politician responded with a "no" on Sunday's ARD program "Report from Berlin" to the question of whether there would be such a commission.

Politicians from the FDP had recently called for an expert commission to decide whether to extend nuclear power plants. "It cannot be that we replace, so to speak, CO2-neutral power plants with, for example, exclusively coal-fired power," FDP parliamentary group leader Christian Dürr told Deutschlandfunk radio. He said it was a matter of energy security and achieving climate protection goals.

The faction leader thus supported Federal Transport Minister and party colleague Volker Wissing, who had recently brought the call for an expert commission into the debate. FDP Secretary General Bijan Djir-Sarai had recently called for longer nuclear power plant lifetimes.

After Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) put his foot down, the German government decided that the three remaining nuclear power plants would continue to run beyond the end of the year until April 15. After that, the use of nuclear power is to come to an end in Germany./ddb/DP/nas