Environmental campaigners are today calling on the European Commission to withdraw new proposals concerning the nuclear industry, until the 1957 treaty under which they are being developed is radically overhauled.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) the European Commission is expected to unveil what is the largest single compilation of new nuclear legislation in more than decade. Developed under legal powers contained in the Euratom Treaty [1], the ‘nuclear package’ represents a coordinated effort to prepare the ground for the further development of atomic power in an enlarged EU.

The centrepiece is a €2,000M extension to a nuclear development loan regime, creating subsidised finance for the promotion of new nuclear power projects. Also included are draft directives on power station decommissioning, waste management, materials imports and reactor safety.

However, Friends of the Earth Europe says the Euratom agreement, signed 45 years ago, is hopelessly out of date, undemocratic and needing radical and urgent reform. The group is calling for the Commission’s new proposals to be temporarily withdrawn, and instead for the Convention on the Future of Europe to start an urgent examination of Euratom as a part of wider treaty reform.

Friends of the Earth maintain the current treaty is defective in three main areas:

• A ‘democratic deficit’, as a co-decision procedure with the European Parliament has never been introduced;
• A ‘conflict of interest’, as the treaty both promotes and regulates the industry, which in turn seriously undermines nuclear safety;
• There is no level playing field across the energy sector. The nuclear industry does not deserve special promotional status above other energy options.

Martin Rocholl, Director of Friends of the Earth Europe, said:

"The Commission’s nuclear package must be suspended. The legal basis for the measures, in the shape of the Euratom Treaty, has been seriously eroded by the passage of time and by the sea change in European opinion away from nuclear power.

"Public opinion across Europe demands a careful approach to nuclear matters. This means at least democratic scrutiny by elected representatives; the clear separation of promotion from regulation; and no special treatment over other energy options in the market place.

"Radical reform of the Treaty must therefore be the top priority. The Commission should focus on developing a common framework for a sustainable EU energy strategy. If Euratom stays unchanged, then the risk of damaging public confidence in the new constitution for Europe is high."

ENDS

Contact: Mark Johnston, FoE Europe Nuclear Campaigner +4479 7331 9249


Notes:

(1) ‘Euratom’ is the shortened form for Treaty to establish a European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC). It was signed in Rome in March 1957 at the same time as the Treaty to establish a European Economic Community (EEC). Whilst the later has been updated many times, the Euratom Treaty has remained largely unchanged. Unlike the1952 European coal and steel treaty, which expired earlier this year on its 50^th anniversary, the Euratom treaty is never set to expire, and so requires active political intervention to bring it up to date. Friends of the Earth believes that the European Convention, now sitting, which leads to the 2004 Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) represents a unique opportunity to reform Euratom and to create a new framework for a sustainable European energy strategy.