Euratom Treaty

Euratom Recommendation on the application of Article 37 of the Euratom Treaty... 

Community activity in the nuclear field is based on the provisions of the Euratom Treaty of 1958. This treaty and developments from it have been primarily concerned with promoting nuclear research and development. Although there has also been activity in the field of design safety criteria, worker and public dose limits and responses to incidents, after Chernobyl the Community found, for example, that it had no provisions in any existing Directives specifying limits to the radioactive content of foodstuffs. Furthermore, the Commission s attempts to coordinate a Community response after Chernobyl showed that there were major differences in sampling practices, reporting of results, etc., between member countries which made harmonisation of responses difficult. 

In fact, a Commission communication prepared after the incident argued that Community competence in the field of radiation protection had actually declined compared with the first provisions of the Euratom Treaty in 1959." The same paper advanced the inability of the Commission to access adequate data as the reason why it did not use the provisions of Article 38 of the Euratom treaty, allowing for Directives in cases of urgency, after the Chernobyl accident. 

On 30 May a Council Regulation laid down restrictions on the specific activity of milk, cheese and other foodstuffs imported into the Community, of 370 Bq/kg for milk, rising to 600 Bq/kg for cheese and other foodstuffs. This regulation was intended to deal specifically with foodstuff contamination by Cs-134 and Cs-137 and was stricter than recommendations to the European Commission by a Group of Experts set up under the provisions of the Euratom Treaty (the Article 31 Group ) (see Table 8.3). This was because the Council felt it should harmonise its regulations with those of countries outside the Community such as the USA, which had set similar limits. By agreement, member states accepted that trade in foodstuffs within the Community would abide by the same levels and that no state would set lower national levels. 

Commission of the European Communities, Th Development of Community Measures for the Application of Chapter III of the Euratom Treaty Health and Safety ,... 

Safety management during the decommissioning of the plant will be the responsibility of the licensee. The licensee will be responsible for preparing a decommissioning safety case, preparing an environmental impact assessment, and demonstrating compliance with Article 37 of the Euratom Treaty in relation to its plans for the disposal of radioactive waste. 

Originally, in the late 1950 s, the Euratom Treaty proposed nuclear power plants (NPPs) as part of the solution to the energy crisis in Western Europe. It should be noted... 

The future Euratom research and training program (after Horizon-2020) is aimed at answering the following questions raised by the Scientific and Technical Committee (Euratom Treaty—Article 7) to the Euratom community in their 2014 fall meeting ... 

Around the same time as the foundation of the IAEA, the original six member states of the European Coal and Steel Community negotiated the estabhshment of two further Communities, the European Common Market and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom), enshrined in the Treaty of Rome. At this time, none of the six had nuclear weapons, nor indeed had developed civilian nuclear power. The Euratom Treaty reflects the issues that were paramount at the time (which included French and others fears of a revived Germany), and among its objectives, as with the IAEA, was to make certain that civil nuclear materials are not diverted to other (particularly military) purposes. 

The first treaty established the European Economic Community (EEC) and the second the European Atomic Energy Community, better known as Euratom . These two treaties entered into force on January 1, 1958. The EEC Treaty has been modified numerous times, most recently with the Lisbon Treaty ratified by the 27 member states of what is today known as the European Union (EU). 

In Europe, the European Community (EC) was formed by the union of three organizations the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), established in 1951 the European Economic Community (EEC), established by the Treaty of Rome in 1957 and the European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM), established in 1957. In 1967, with the Merger Treaty, these organizations merged to form the EC. After the Maastricht Treaty in 1992, the EC became the European Union (EU) which consists of the European Commission, the European Council, the European Parliament, and the European Court of Justice. ... 

Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgimn, and Luxembourg sign the Treaties of Rome. The first Treaty created the European Economic Community (EEC), or common market, to allow for the free movement of people and trade across national borders. The second created the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom). 

The Treaty of Brussels, known as the Merger Treaty, merged the EEC, the ECSC, and Euratom under the Council of Ministers and European Commission. The merged entity was known as the European Communities (EC). 

Although the three communities focused on different objectives, the EURATOM and ECSC Treaties made some reference to research activities in their fields of competence. 

The Treaty establishing the EUROPEAN ATOMIC ENERGY COMMUNITY (EAEC or EURATOM) was signed in Rome in 1957. 

The Treaty introduced an extremely comprehensive and strict system of safeguards to ensure that civil nuclear materials were not diverted from the civil use declared by the member states. The EU has exclusive powers in this domain, which it exercises through a team of 300 inspectors who enforce the Euratom safeguards throughout theEU. 

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