55 years of European Integration in the Area of Nuclear Energy: History, Status and Perspectives of the European Atomic Energy Community
Abstract
The Euratom Treaty has largely remained in its original 1957 form up until today, whilst the EC Treaty and the EU Treaty have been amended several times with many substantive changes and additions. Given its age and its largely unamended state, the Euratom Treaty has often been called a fossil, particularly by those who wish to phase out nuclear technology as a source of energy generation altogether.
There are also some features that are open to more general criticisms, regardless of the position one takes towards nuclear technology. These include provisions which do not seem to meet today’s requirements, such as the Treaty objective to promoting the ‘speedy establishment and growth of nuclear industries’, the existence of provisions which have never been applied as intended by the authors of the Treaty and Euratom’s democratic deficit and ensuing lack of legitimacy.However, the new millennium opened a considerable shift in the Euratom legislation: Following the ECJ judgement concerning Euratom’s accession to the Convention on Nuclear Safety (2001), Euratom enacted several directives regulating transport of nuclear materials, nuclear safety and radioactive waste management.
This reflects the phenomenon, described as “Europeanization of International Law”, where the European law absorbs provisions of international treaties. Thus, the paper deals with the issue of Euratom’s ability to cope with the most recent challenges and with the perspectives of this Community after the accident in the Japanese nuclear power plant Fukushima Dai-ichi.