France and Italy on Saturday signed a wide-ranging agreement on cooperation in the energy sector, including possible joint work on future nuclear projects, the French industry ministry said.
The statement, signed at a meeting in the northern Italian city of Genoa, called for a joint approach to the European Union's single market in energy, including possible nuclear power projects aimed at "facing up to climate change and to energy supply security," a ministry statement said.
It added that France, which has one of the biggest civilian nuclear power industries in the world, was ready to help Italy with technology, and the two countries would harmonise their approaches to multilateral bodies such as the UN International Atomic Energy Agency.
The agreement, covering institutional, commercial and industrial cooperation, was signed by French Industry Minister Francois Loos and Italy's minister for productive activities, Claudio Scajola, the French statement said.
"The two parties will strive to remove obstacles to bilateral cooperation in the industrial and commercial spheres, and to favour real and reciprocal opening, and the good functioning, of the energy market," it said.
On May 30 France's state electricity utility EDF and Italy's Enel signed a cooperation deal under which the Italian group will be allowed to take part in a French third-generation nuclear power programme, and enter France's energy market.
The deal was imposed as a condition by Italy before allowing EDF to exercise voting rights it had acquired in Edison, Italy's number-two electricity company.
