Vienna, Austria, 19 October 2023 – Members of the Group of European Municipalities with Nuclear Facilities in Europe(GMF Europe) held their Annual General Assembly yesterday at the headquarters of the  International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna. Mr. Gerben Dijksterhuis, mayor of the municipality of Borsele in the Netherlands, was elected President, after Ms. Pia Almström, GMF president for the last 4 years and mayor of Kävlinge municipality (Sweden) for 24 years, decided to retire for the last local elections.

Mr. Dijksterhuis served as vice-president of GMF since January 2020, together with Mr. Philip Matthews from Nuleaf in the UK and Mr. Csaba Dohóczki from Hungary. The new elected vice-president is Mr. Fabian Sjöberg, mayor of Östhammar in Sweden.

GMF is a group of local elected representatives from 16 European countries hosting or interested to host different types of nuclear facilities. The GMF steering committee elected yesterday aims to continue the enlargement of GMF to more European countries which have municipalities and associations of municipalities hosting or interested to host nuclear facilities, such as nuclear power plants, Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) or radioactive waste storage or disposal facilities. “The renewed interest in nuclear energy as part of the decarbonisation strategies and the implementation of the EU climate policy makes GMF an obvious partner in any debates on nuclear. Any decision taken either on developing new nuclear or ensuring safe nuclear waste disposal will always  require a local site. For this reason, the voice of local communities should be much more present than it is now.”  Gerben Dijksterhuis, GMF’s President.