WRITTEN QUESTION P-0655/02

by Daniela Raschhofer (NI) to the Council

(1 March 2002)

Subject: Uniform European nuclear safety standards

In my written question (P-3449/01(1)) of December 2001, with reference to the Court of Auditors' annual report for 2000, I drew the Commission's attention to the problems of assessing the effectiveness of the PHARE and TACIS programmes and the lack of uniform European nuclear safety standards.

Commissioner Christopher Patten's reply of 1 February 2002 states that the lack of an acquis or general criteria for nuclear safety hampers the definition of indicators for specific improvements to nuclear safety in a beneficiary country and that the call for the Commission to introduce nuclear safety standards must be seen in the context of the Council's evident difficulties in approving such standards and helping to prepare them.

I would like an answer to the following questions:

- To what extent is the Council willing to cooperate in drawing up and preparing uniform European nuclear safety standards?

- When will the Council take concrete steps to establish uniform European safety standards?

- If the Council does not intend to take any such action, how does it justify this, bearing in mind that the atomic status quo in Europe makes uniform nuclear safety standards more necessary than ever and that the Court of Auditors stated in its annual report on the 2000 financial year that At the end of 2000, these European standards had still not been defined?

(1) OJ C 160 E, 4.7.2002, p. 114.

Reply

(22 July 2002)

The Council would firstly like to stress that a clear distinction needs to be made between the rules governing the safety of nuclear installations, including nuclear power plants, and those governing safeguard obligations applying to them as set out notably in Chapter 7 of the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community.

In paragraph 59 of its Laeken conclusions the European Council states that: The European Council undertakes to maintain a high level of nuclear safety in the Union. It stresses the need to monitor the security and safety of nuclear power stations. It calls for regular reports from Member States' atomic energy experts, who will maintain close contact with the Commission.

The Council would like to point out that the safety of nuclear power plants is a matter not of Community but of national competence, as the EAEC Treaty does not contain specific provisions giving powers to the Community in this respect.

As a consequence, no specific legislation setting common safety standards for nuclear installation safety has been developed at EU level. The competence and the responsibilities relating to the safety of a nuclear installation lie with the State which has jurisdiction for the installation concerned. Within those national responsibilities, a high degree of convergence on the substance of technical and organisational requirements and good practice has been achieved in the EU.

Moreover, in the context of the IAEA, which issues safety recommendations, and the Convention on Nuclear Safety, to which all Member States as well as Euratom are parties, safety arrangements in the Member States are already subject to an in-depth peer review.

The Council has also, on a number of occasions, stressed the importance of candidate countries achieving a high level of nuclear safety. To that effect it adopted a report setting out a number of detailed recommendations. Candidate countries were invited to accept them and indicate schedules for implementing them.

The Council would lastly point out that it does not comment on statements by European Commission members.