German leaders have reached an agreement to extend the operating life of the country’s nuclear power plants and to levy new fees on the utility companies’ expected additional profits.

Following months of public wrangling on the controversial issue, Chancellor Angela Merkel, Environment Minister Norbert Roettgen, Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle, Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble and other key leaders of the governing centre-right coalition reached the agreement in an almost 10-hour-long session, a government official said.

The country’s 17 nuclear power plants will remain online for a number of additional years, but how long exactly will be defined by each plant’s age, according to German news agency, dapd .

Merkel said an extra 10 to 15 years of production time beyond 2021 was possible. A previous centre-left government decided in 2000 to shut down all nuclear plants by 2021 – a decision she wanted to reverse so that Germany could have more time in making the switch to renewable energy.

The coalition leaders also agreed on a new nuclear levy to tax the utility companies’ profits resulting from the extension. As announced earlier, the companies will have to pay an annual fuel tax aimed at raising €2.3 billion ($3 billion) starting next year, but they will also have to contribute to a special fund to boost renewable energies, dapd reported.

The decision led to public protests in Berlin.

The main opposition parties, the Social Democrats and the Greens, staunchly oppose the idea of keeping the plants longer online, citing the safety risk and the need to switch to renewable energy.

Merkel’s coalition, however, still needs to obtain parliamentary approval for the new agreement.

The government says the measure only has to be approved by the lower house, where it holds a majority. The opposition maintains the upper house representing the federal states – where Merkel recently lost her majority – has to approve the measure as well. If no agreement is reached, leading opposition politicians have hinted they would bring the case to the country’s constitutional court.