PARIS (Reuters) - About 15 environmental activists climbed the Eiffel Tower on Sunday to unfurl a banner protesting against France's nuclear energy policies, on the day when it hosts a major summit of heads of state.
Campaign group Greenpeace said the banner showing thenuclear logo was placed in the middle of a circle of starsrepresenting the European Union displayed on the tower to markFrance's six-month term as EU president.
"Since he was elected, President Nicolas Sarkozy has doneeverything he could to sell nuclear energy," said FredericMarillier of the French section of Greenpeace in a statement.
"At the U.N., as head of the European council, or justrecently at the G8, he has behaved like a travelling salesmanfor Areva and has used political platforms to promote Frenchnuclear power," Marillier said, referring to the French nuclearenergy producer Areva.
Sarkozy was hosting over 40 heads of state and governmentin Paris on Sunday for a summit on the partnership between theEuropean Union and countries from the Mediterranean region.
The issue of nuclear safety has come to the fore in Franceover the past week because of a uranium leak from a nuclearpower plant in the southeast of the country.
Areva said on Tuesday 30 cubic metres of liquid containinguranium was accidentally poured on the ground and into a riverat the Tricastin nuclear site. The incident was classified atlevel one on the International Nuclear Event Scale, in whichthe lowest level is zero and the highest is seven.
The incident exacerbated anger among environmentalists overSarkozy's July 3 announcement that France would build a secondnew-generation European Pressurised Reactor (EPR), bringing to60 the number of nuclear reactors in the country.
France, which took over the rotating EU presidency on July1, is Europe's biggest atomic energy-producing nation.
The Greenpeace protest at the Eiffel Tower was the secondanti-nuclear demonstration in Paris in as many days. OnSaturday, thousands of protesters marched in the city centrecarrying banners with slogans like "Stay inactive today andyou'll be radioactive tomorrow".
(Reporting by Estelle Shirbon; Editing by Catherine Evans)
