Brussels, 11/05/2007 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday, the European Parliament adopted the own initiative report by Eugenijus Maldeikis (UEN, Lithuania) on “Assessing Euratom”, after 50 years of existence of the European Atomic Energy Community, by 406 votes to 175, with 4 abstentions. Thus Parliament gave a positive assessment of the treaty and called for the co-decision procedure to be extended to it.
The assessment of the Euratom Treaty is generally positive, notably on four points: - the degree of Community cooperation in the nuclear domain, particularly in research; - the position as world leader of Europe's nuclear industry and European nuclear research into fission and controlled thermonuclear fusion; - the joint legal framework that governs the research and use of nuclear energy; - the legal base which allows the EU to become involved in international cooperation. The EP also highlights the importance of Euratom “at a time when the European Union is seeking to define a European energy mix that is low-carbon, competitive and as far as possible home-grown”. In this context, it points out that, at the end of 2006, nuclear energy was producing 32% of European electricity, “that is, the largest share of non-carbon electricity in the European Union and one of its most competitive sources”. It also points out that nuclear energy is considered by the Commission (see “Illustrative Nuclear Programme”, energy package, January 2007, EUROPE 9341) as one of the main sources of CO2-free energy sources (making it important for combating climate change) and the third cheapest energy source in Europe, without internalisation of CO2 costs (making it important for security of supply). The EP acknowledges, however, that “the 1957 consensus on nuclear energy no longer exists among member states”.
At the institutional level, the EP notes that the key arrangements of the treaty have not been amended since it came into force on 1 January 1958 and that Euratom has not imposed nuclear energy on any member state, while providing a broad legal framework (health protection, monitoring of security, supply) “in order to reassure member states that have not chosen this option”. Given its effectiveness, the EP calls for the Euratom Treaty not to be abandoned. “The partial incorporation (of the treaty) into a hypothetical chapter on 'Energy' in the EC Treaty would weaken the overall legal supervision of nuclear energy in Europe and remove the specific nuclear control procedures contained today in the Euratom Treaty,” it warns.
The EP considers it necessary, however, to make substantial adjustments to the Euratom Treaty, using Article 203, to which it attributes its longevity, since it “offers flexibility … to undertake legislative initiatives not initially provided for”. Wishing to be more closely involved in EU nuclear policy, the EP calls on the Commission and the Council to “address the democratic deficit inherent in the Euratom Treaty and extend the co-decision procedure to legislation adopted under it”. The democratic deficit is not the only gap in the treaty, says the EP, which also regrets the lack of a legislative corpus on harmonised standards for nuclear safety, the management of radioactive waste and the decommissioning of nuclear plants with genuine added value compared with the existing international framework.
Finally, with the adoption of an amendment by the Greens, the EP once again called for an inter-governmental conference to review the Euratom Treaty completely to repeal the outdated arrangements, maintain the nuclear industry's regulatory system at EU level, revise the remaining arrangements in the context of a modern, sustainable energy policy and incorporate those which are appropriate into a separate chapter devoted to energy. (eh)