A legal challenge to the Hinkley C project has been lodged by the Austrian government.

Campaigners fighting the Hinkley C project are adamant that Austria’s challenge is the final ‘nail in the coffin’ for the controversial project.

The project has already seen a number of hold-ups and the Austrian government has now filed a legal challenge against the European Commission’s decision to give the nuclear power project the green light.

The case concerns the British government’s guarantee of a 35-year fixed electricity rate to French energy group EDF, arguing that the UK’s loan guarantees over the period constitutes illegal state aid.

The Austrian deputy chancellor Reinhold Mitterlehner has said that “subsidising a technology which has been around for several decades, and is unprofitable once you take into account all the costs, goes against the basic logic of European law regarding state aid.”

EDF has said that the Hinkley Point C agreements are durable because they are “fair and balanced” and that they were approved by the European Commission