Opinion on the proposal for a Council Decision approving amendments to the statutes of the Joint European Torus (JET), joint undertaking

(96/C 18/10)

On 6 July 1995 the Council decided to consult the Economic and Social Committee, under Article 198 of the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community, on the above-mentioned proposal.

The Section for Energy, Nuclear Questions and Research, which was responsible for preparing the Committee's work on the subject, adopted its Opinion on 26 September 1995. The Rapporteur, working without a Study Group, was Mr Lyons.

At its 329th Plenary Session (meeting of 25 October 1995), the Economic and Social Committee adopted the following Opinion unanimously.

1. The proposed amendments are:

(i) to extend the life of the Joint European Torus (JET) undertaking by three years, i.e. from 1 January 1997 to the end of 1999;

(ii) to agree to the accession to the JET joint undertaking of the Technology Development Centre of Finland;

(iii) to amend the JET statutes by virtue of the fact that Sweden, which as a 'third country' has been fully associated with the Euratom fusion programme, became a member of the European Union on 1 January this year; and

(iv) to accept certain other amendments to the wording of the JET statutes to bring them fully in line with the Treaty on European Union.

2. The amendments referred to under (ii), (iii) and (iv) above are administrative in nature and are agreed to.

3. Relating to the first proposed amendment, the Committee was aware at the time it determined its Opinion on the specific programme of research and training in the field of controlled thermonuclear fusion (1994-1998), Opinion adopted on 14 September 1994 (), that a review was in progress to determine whether the life of the JET joint undertaking should be extended.

4. The outcome of that review was a recommendation to extend the life of JET for three years in order to obtain further scientific data relevant to the design of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) which it is intended to construct for the next stage of the international fusion programme.

4.1. It is on the basis of that recommendation, which was supported by the Consultative Committee on the Fusion Programme (CCPF), that the Commission has tabled the proposal referred to at (i) above. The scientific reasons supporting the Commission's proposal are set out in Section III of the Explanatory Memorandum.

5. The cost to EURATOM of the proposed extension of the life of the JET joint undertaking is estimated as being about ECU 240 million and is to be met out of the funds allocated for the fusion programme (1994-1998), which was decided by Council on 8 December 1994 (), (see point 7 of the Explanatory Memorandum and, in particular, the statement that 'the extension of the JET joint undertaking would have no financial implications').

6. As the Committee has already approved the total expenditure allocated to the fusion programme for 1994-1998, and this remains the same, the Committee has no reason to query the Commission's proposal, to vary the detail of the internal scientific programme or to object to the consequential extension to the term of the JET joint undertaking.

Done at Brussels, 25 October 1995.

The President

of the Economic and Social Committee

Carlos FERRER

() OJ No C 393, 31. 12. 1994, p. 139.

() OJ No L 331, 21. 12. 1994, p. 22.