Belgium's lower house of parliament voted early today to phase out nuclear energy progressively between 2015 and 2025.
The decision, which will have to be approved by the senate in the next few weeks, will lead to the closure of Belgium's seven nuclear power plants.
A spokesman for junior energy minister Olivier Deleuze said that the senate would approve the measure 'unless there is a major political accident.'
The draft law aims to close power plants when they are 40 years old, implying the first closure from February 2015 and the last in 2025.
Belgium is one of five EU states planning to phase out nuclear energy. The others are Germany, Spain, Sweden and the Netherlands. In all, eight EU states have nuclear plants.
