Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico and his Czech counterpart Mirek Topolanek on Monday called on the EU to back nuclear energy as a means of cutting carbon dioxide emissions and increasing energy independence.

`We won`t be able to do without nuclear energy in the upcoming decades (...) we have to cut our dependence on Russia and there is also the EU energy-climate package,` Topolanek said at the opening of a European nuclear forum in Bratislava.

The EU`s climate-energy package and nuclear energy are interconnected, he said, adding that nuclear energy brought low green-house gas emissions without harming competitiveness.

`I`m glad that nuclear energy is no longer taboo in the EU. On the other hand, there are still more plants being closed down than opened`, Topolanek said.

`Nuclear energy must find its place ... if EU wants to stand its ground in competition`, Fico added, praising the `renaissance of nuclear energy`.

The main Slovakian power producer Slovenske Elektrarne (SE) launched the construction of two new units at the Mochovce nuclear power plant in western Slovakia on Monday.

`This project is essential to Slovakia`s self-sufficiency`, Fico said at a the launching ceremony.

Nuclear power plants currently produce around a third of the EU`s electricity and around 15 percent of its total energy but that proportion is dwindling as plants built in the 1960s and 1970s come to the end of their lives.