CELEX: 51988PC0809
Language: en
Date: 1988-12-22
Title: AMENDED PROPOSAL FOR A COUNCIL DIRECTIVE ON INFORMING THE POPULATION ABOUT HEALTH PROTECTION MEASURES TO BE APPLIED AND STEPS TO BE TAKEN IN THE EVENT OF A RADIOLOGICAL EMERGENCY

7. 2. 89                              Official Journal of the European Communities                            No C 31/9
            Amendment to the proposal for a Council Regulation (EEC) on common rules for the inter-
                                    national carriage of passengers by coach and bus (')
                                                     COM(88)    770 final
             (Submitted by the Commission in accordance with Article 149 (3) of the EEC Treaty on 22
                                                       December 1988)
                                                        (89/C 31/08)
            The Commission proposal of 9 April 1987, as set out in COM(87) 79 final, is hereby amended
            as follows:
            Article 4 becomes Article 4 (1) and the following paragraph 2 is added:
                  '2.    Shuttle services with accommodation shall also be able to operate without author-
                  ization in the following special cases, namely where they:
                  — pick up on the return journey passengers who made the outward journey with another
                      group, on condition that the total number of such passengers does not exceed 30 % of
                      the number of passengers carried on the outward journey,
                  — pick up passengers at a maximum of three places on the outward journey and deposit
                      them at a maximum of three places on the return journey, other than the place of
                      departure, provided that these places are situated in the State from which the service
                      departs,
                  — set down passengers at a maximum of three places on the outward journey and pick
                      them up at a maximum of three places on the return journey, other than the place of
                      destination, provided that these places are situated in the State of destination of the
                      service.'
            (') OJ No C 120, 6.5. 1987, p. 9.
            Amended proposal for a Council Directive on informing the population about health protection
                 measures to be applied and steps to be taken in the event of a radiological emergency
                                                     COM(88) 809 final
                                   (Submitted by the Commission on 23 December 1988)
                                                        (89/C 31/09)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,                         Whereas Article 2 (b) of the Treaty lays down that the
                                                                 Community shall establish uniform safety standards to
                                                                 protect the health of workers and of the general public;
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European
Atomic Energy Community, and in particular Article 31
thereof,
                                                                 Whereas, on 2 February 1959, the Council adopted
                                                                 Directives laying down the basic safety standards for the
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,               health protection of the general public and workers
established following consultation with a group of               against the dangers of ionizing radiation ('), as last
persons appointed by the Scientific and Technical                amended by Directive 80/836/Euratom (2) and Directive
Committee,                                                       84/467/Euratom( 3 );
Having regard      to   the  opinion    of   the  European
Parliament,
                                                                 (') OJ No 11, 20.2. 1959, p. 221/59.
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and                 (2) OJ No L 246, 17.9. 1980, p. 1.
Social Committee,                                                (>) OJ No L 265, 5. 10. 1984, p. 4.
 ---pagebreak--- No C 31/10                             Official Journal of the European Communities                                    7. 2. 89
Whereas, under the terms of Article 24 of Directive              Whereas, in the event of an accident in a nuclear instal-
80/836/Euratom, all Member States must ensure that               lation in a Member State, the population living in the
exposed workers receive adequate information on                  vicinity of the installation should be prevented from
radiation protection;                                            taking inappropriate action likely to reduce the effec-
                                                                 tiveness of the emergency measures taken or planned;
                                                                 Whereas the population likely to be directly affected
Whereas, under the terms of Article 45 (4) of the said
                                                                 should therefore be given in advance appropriate infor-
Directive, each Member State must, in the event of an
                                                                  mation on the planned health protection measures
accident, stipulate the intervention levels and measures to
                                                                  relating to it and the action it should take in the event of
be taken by the competent authorities and the necessary
                                                                  a radiological emergency;
resources both in personnel and equipment to enable
action to be taken to safeguard and maintain the health
of the population;                                               Whereas certain joint principles and specific provisions
                                                                  for informing such sections of the population should be
                                                                  drawn up for this purpose at Community level;
Whereas Article 38 of the Treaty provides that, in cases
of urgency, the Commission shall issue a Directive               Whereas joint principles and specific provisions for
requiring the Member State concerned to take all                  informing the population as a whole in the event of a
necessary measures to prevent infringement of the basic           real radiological emergency should also be drawn up;
standards;
                                                                  Whereas account must be taken of the transfrontier
                                                                  hazard in the information supplied to the population;
Whereas, under the terms of Article 6 (2) of Directive
85/337/EEC ( ! ), Member States must ensure that infor-
mation on the measures planned to avoid and reduce the            Whereas, on the basis of these preventive measures, it
significant adverse effects of nuclear power stations and         will be possible to provide uniform, effective protection
other nuclear reactors, in particular on the population, is       for the population in the event of a radiological
made available to the public before the projects are              emergency,
initiated;
                                                                  HAS ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE:
Whereas some Member States have already concluded
bilateral agreements on information, coordination and
                                                                                             Article 1
mutual assistance in the event of a nuclear accident;
                                                                   1.   The purpose of this Directive is to provide for
                                                                  measures and procedures for informing the population
Whereas all Member States have signed the International           aimed at improving the operational health protection
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Convention on early                   provided in the event of a radiological emergency.
 notification of a nuclear accident and some have signed
 the IAEA Convention on assistance in the event of a               2.    For the purposes of this Directive the following
 nuclear accident or radiological emergency;                      terms shall have the meanings hereby assigned:
 Whereas Council Decision 87/600/Euratom of 14                     (a) Nuclear activities:
 December 1987 on Community arrangements for the
 early exchange of information in the event of a radio-                activities involving a risk from ionizing radiation, the
 logical emergency (2) requires all Member States which                exercise of which is subject to declaration under the
 decide to take emergency measures to protect the popu-                terms of the Directive laying down basic safety
 lation, either as a result of abnormally high levels of               standards.
 radioactivity in the environment, or following an
 accident involving an actual or potential substantial             (b) Event of radiological emergency:
 release of radioactive material, to notify the Commission
 and the Member States which are, or are likely to be,
 affected, of the protective measures which they have                  a situation in which, as a result of either an abnormal
 taken or planned and also of any measures which they                  increase in the levels of radioactivity in the en-
 have taken or planned to inform the public;                           vironment or an accident or any other occurrence
                                                                       concerning nuclear activities, or the installations in
                                                                       which they are exercised, of a Member State or of
                                                                       natural or legal persons under its jurisdiction, the
                                                                       dose limits prescribed for members of the public
 C) OJ No L 175, 5. 7. 1985, p. 40.                                    under the Directive laying down basic safety
 O OJ No L 371, 30. 12. 1987, p. 76.                                   standards are likely to be exceeded.
 ---pagebreak--- 7. 2. 89                              Official Journal of the European Communities                             No C 31/11
(c) Population likely to be affected:                           This information shall also be given to the Commission.
                                                                                          Article 5
     any population for whose protection the Member
     State plans to take emergency measures in the event         1.    Member States shall set up or appoint the authority
     of a radiological emergency.                               or authorities responsible for providing information on
                                                                nuclear questions and for implementing Articles 2, 3 and
                                                                4 of this Directive.
                          Article 2                             2.     Member States shall instruct the authority or auth-
                                                                orities responsible to collect, record, process, select and
 1.   Member States shall ensure that the population
                                                                pass on the information to be given to the population
groups likely to be affected in the event of a radiological
                                                                and to the personnel referred to in Article 4.
emergency within the meaning of Article 1 of this
Directive are given information about the health
protection measures applicable to them and about the                                      Article 6
action they should take.                                        Detailed procedures for circulating the information shall
                                                                be laid down by the Member States.
2.    The information supplied will at least include the        As regards the dissemination of the information referred
elements set out in Annex I.                                    to under Article 2 depending on the nature of the radio-
                                                                logical emergency envisaged, Member States shall:
                                                                — determine which         sector   of  the   population   is
3.    This information shall be communicated to the                  concerned,
population groups referred to in point 1 above without
any request being made.                                         — determine the manner in which natural and legal
                                                                     persons shall be informed without submitting a
                                                                     request, for example, by letter or information
4.    Member States shall update and circulate the infor-            brochure addressed to them,
mation regularly and whenever material changes in the           — specify the places where the information may also be
arrangements that it describes take place. This infor-               consulted,
mation shall be made permanently available to the public.
                                                                — specify how the population in general may be
                                                                     informed, for example through the posting of notices
                                                                     within a certain radius, the publication of the infor-
                          Article 3
                                                                     mation in local newspapers, and exhibitions with
 1.   Member States shall ensure that, in the event of a             plans, records, graphs and models.
radiological emergency, the population concerned is
informed without delay of the facts of the emergency,                                     Article 7
the action to be taken and the health protection
measures applicable to it.                                      The information circulated to the population by a
                                                                Member State pursuant to Article 2, and which relates to
                                                                an accident likely to result in the radioactive contami-
                                                                nation of the waters, the soil or the airspace of other
2.    The information supplied will be based on the             Member States, shall be communicated simultaneously to
pattern set out in Annex II.                                    the other Member States likely to be affected, in the
                                                                framework of the bilateral relations.
                          Article 4                             The information communicated to the population by a
                                                                Member State pursuant to Article 3 shall be
Member States shall ensure that any persons who might           communicated also by the latter to the other Member
be involved in the organization of emergency assistance         States which are, or are likely to be, affected, pursuant
in the event of a radiological emergency, in particular         to Articles 2, (1) (b) and 3 (1) of Decision 87/600/
medical staff, firemen, servicemen, civil defence               Euratom (1).
personnel and staff of the administrations concerned,
shall be informed of the health risks involved in their
                                                                                          Article 8
work and receive specific information about the nature
of the possible emergency, its possible health effects and      This Directive is without prejudice to the right of the
on the precautions to be taken should the situation arise.      Member States to apply or adopt administrative or legis-
                                                                lative measures to provide more extensive information to
                                                                the population than that provided for under the terms of
This information shall likewise include details of the          this Directive.
procedure and instructions provided for in the instal-
lations' internal plans in the event of an emergency.           (') OJ No L 371, 30. 12. 1987, p. 76.
 ---pagebreak--- N o C 31/12                                 Official J o u r n a l of the E u r o p e a n C o m m u n i t i e s                                 7. 2. 89
                              Article  9                                       2.       M e m b e r States shall c o m m u n i c a t e to the Comission
                                                                               the provisions of national law which they a d o p t in the
1.     T h e M e m b e r States shall a d o p t the laws, regu-                field governed by this Directive,
lations a n d administrative provisions necessary to comply
with this Directive within 12 m o n t h s of its adoption.                                                      Article 10
T h e y shall immediately inform the C o m m i s s i o n thereof.             This Directive is addressed to the M e m b e r States.
                                                                      Annex I
                                                    Information referred to under Article 2
               The information provided covers the following points:
                 I. Basic concepts of radioactivity
                     — Basic concepts of radioactivity;
                     — How radioactivity affects health.
                II. Description of the situation(s) covered by the emergency measures and their probability
                     — Description of the various radiological emergencies covered and their probability.
                     — Description of the sectors of the environment likely to be appreciably affected by the type of
                        accident covered, including the population, and a description of the main effects which the types of
                        accident envisaged are likely to have on these.
                     — Influence of climatic factors on the various situations.
               III. Description of the measures planned to avoid and reduce the significant adverse effects of radiological
                     emergencies
                     — The means by which the population concerned will be alerted.
                     — Detailed information on the evacuation plans.
                     — Emergency health protection measures and action to be taken in addition to the evacuation plans.
                                                                      Annex II
                                                    Information referred to under Article 3
               Depending on the type of radiological emergency, the information covers the following points:
                  I. General information
                     A. Basic concepts of radioactivity (text prepared in advance)
                        — Basic concepts of radioactivity.
                        — How radioactivity affects health.
                        — The main radiation protection measures.
 ---pagebreak--- 7. 2. 89                             Official J o u r n a l of the E u r o p e a n C o m m u n i t i e s     No C 31/13
              B. General description of the situation
                 — Outline of the radiological emergency and its causes, covering in particular:
                    — the location and date of the accident,
                    — the type of radiological emergency,
                    — the main characteristics of the radioactive substances involved,
                    — the size of the area threatened.
                 — Foreseeable development of the situation.
          II. Emergency health protection measures and action to be taken
              — Attitude towards the environment and decontamination rules:
                 — what to do about the air (moving around outside, staying at home, what clothing to wear),
                 — what to do about water (bathing, watersports, fishing, consumption of rain-water),
                 — what to do about the soil.
              — Attitude towards foodstuffs and drinking water:
                 — conditions for harvesting and measures to deal with livestock,
                  — conditions for consumption of foodstuffs and drinking water,
                 — supply centres for uncontaminated foodstuffs and drinking water.
              — Distribution of iodine tablets as planned.
         III. Information on evacuation plans
              — Announcements recommending cooperation with any instructions or requests formulated by the
                  emergency services.
              — Public transport (where and when stops are made).
              — Routes intended for private vehicles and restrictions on road traffic.
              — Accommodation and shelter facilities and their capacity.
              — Medical centres and arrangements made for providing medical care.
         IV. Date and time of the next public announcement