Convention under pressure to phase out Euratom Treaty

Date: 20/02/03

By Karen Carstens and Martin Banks

THE Convention on Europe's future is facing demands to scrap the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) treaty, which has not been updated since coming into effect 45 years ago.

Signed on the same day as the treaty which established the European Economic Community, Euratom was designed to provide a secure framework in which to develop nuclear energy.

Its key provisions refer to the safeguarding of nuclear materials, security of uranium supply and coordination of research into the peaceful use of nuclear power.

However, some MEPs believe the Euratom treaty is past its sell-by date and want the Convention to recommend its abolition.

German MEP Jo Leinen is one of those who wants to see it axed, but says that the forum headed by Valéry Giscard d'Estaing has had precious little to say so far about the matter.

"He [Giscard] has blocked action on this. There is no working group on this, and there is very little time left. At the very least there should be a plenary debate," said the Social Democrat deputy.

"This is not about being for or against atomic energy. This is about whether or not a treaty will remain in place when everyone in the Convention has sworn there will be a fusion of all the treaties."

Leinen, a former environment minister for Germany's tiny Saarland state, argues that the Euratom treaty provisions should be replaced by the environment chapter in the constitution being drafted by the Convention.

His call for Euratom to be scrapped was echoed by Scottish nationalist MEP Sir Neil MacCormick, who said: "In order to create a level playing field in the internal market for energy and to improve the democratic control of energy policies in the EU we have to the abolish the Euratom treaty."

Not all MEPs agree with them.

Briton Terry Wynn and Finn Ari Vatanen strongly defended the treaty in a letter to European Voice last September.

They wrote: "For 45 years it has made a valuable contribution to meeting our needs for clean energy. So why change it?

"We must make sure that any proposed review of the treaty is not conducted on ideological grounds. Any move to weaken the EU's access to the use of nuclear energy will also weaken our ability to combat climate change and threaten the security of our energy supplies."

The row could escalate when the European Parliament holds a hearing next month into proposals by Loyola de Palacio, the transport and energy commissioner, to boost the amount of money that can be borrowed through Euratom from €4 billion to €6bn.

The money would be used for decommissioning projects and nuclear safety research: Euratom set up four centres which specialise in this - at Karlsruhe in Germany, Ispra in Italy, Geel in Belgium and Petten in the Netherlands.

A fifth centre, the Joint European Torus, was subsequently set up in 1977 at Culham in the UK to carry out research into nuclear fusion, which is seen as a safer alternative to nuclear fission.

The Convention on Europe's future is facing demands to scrap the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) treaty, which has not been updated since coming into effect 45 years ago.