Sophie Wilmès MEP (Renew Europe, Belgian) has proposed “clarifying and strengthening the promotion of international conventions” in her draft report on the regulation establishing the Instrument for Nuclear Safety and Decommissioning Cooperation for the period 2028-2034.
This regulation, presented in September 2025 by the European Commission (see EUROPE 13701/10), introduces a different approach to simplifying the implementation of the Euratom research and training programme: less red tape, greater confidence for beneficiaries and faster delivery of authorisations.
It includes an external component aimed at strengthening nuclear safety, radiation protection, the safe management of radioactive waste and spent fuel, decommissioning and the application of effective and efficient safeguards on nuclear materials in partner countries. The rapporteur’s amendments on this point “encourage partner countries to accede to these conventions and support IAEA-assisted peer reviews as an objective tool to assess national nuclear safety frameworks and to inform Union programming and prioritisation”, she emphasised in the explanatory memorandum.
She also wished to strengthen the requirements in terms of transparency and public information, in particular by requiring the Commission to make available to the European Parliament relevant information concerning the nuclear safety measures supported by the instrument.
With regard to emerging technologies, it wanted to introduce a clear safeguard to “ensure that Union funding does not support the licensing process of competing non-European technologies in partner countries, by requiring that funding decisions take the European interest and the competitiveness of the Union into account”.
Finally, the amendments concerning the internal component of the instrument instruct the Commission to proactively propose and develop “innovative legal and financial instruments capable of addressing the complex long-term uncertainties associated with the potential transfer of the nuclear liabilities of the Joint Research Centre to Member States”. They also aim to promote coherence and synergies between the Union’s various policies, including the Euratom programme, and strengthen the governance framework.
Read the draft report: https://aeur.eu/f/lag (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)