The European Commission (EC) has redrafted legislation allowing the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) to accede to the global Convention on Nuclear Safety. This follows a European Court of Justice declaration last year that the European Union Council of Ministers made mistakes when it ratified the treaty (see NEI January 2003, p4). Implementing legislation had failed to declare all of Euratom’s roles regarding nuclear safety, making the ratification null and void. European Union (EU) ministers will now be asked to approve a new improved version.
Meanwhile, a senior EC official has attacked calls by environmental groups that the ongoing review of EU treaties should abolish Euratom. François Lamoureux, EC energy and transport director, said its main provisions should be preserved in reforms proposed this summer by the European Convention, the body tasked with renewing the EU’s administrative structure. He claimed nuclear power had a future and is certainly “not dead”. Euratom’s provisions do not promote nuclear power, but make it safer, he claimed.
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