Activites

• 2003/11/12 Final act published in Official Journal
• 2002/07/02 Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
  • T5-0346/2002 summary

    The European Parliament adopted a resolution drafted by Paul RUBIG (EPP-ED, Austria) on the Commission's report. (Please refer to the document dated 22/05/02.) Parliament called for greater clarification from the ESO of cases where discrepancies were found during inspections or material balance evaluations. The ESO was asked to give further explanations and justifications for the margin of error built into the "material unaccounted for" (MUF) figures. These margins should be significantly reduced over time to increase the accuracy of accounting for fissile material. Parliament encouraged the Commission to propose a directive to fix a reference framework for all activities of auditing over time to increase the accuracy of accounting for fissile material.�

• 2002/07/01 Debate in Parliament
  • Debate in Parliament
• 2002/05/22 Vote in committee, 1st reading/single reading
  • A5-0196/2002
• 2001/11/12 Committee referral announced in Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
• 2001/07/26 Non-legislative basic document published
  • COM(2001)0436 summary

    PURPOSE : to present the report on the operation of the Euratom safeguards office 1999-2000. CONTENT : the task of the Euratom Safeguards Office is to ensure that within the European Union nuclear material is not diverted from its intended use and that safeguarding obligations assumed by the Community under an agreement with a third state or an international organisation are complied with. This document describes the role and the legal basis of the Euratom Safeguards Office and reports on its operation for the period 1999-2000. It also provides some information on current developments and includes an outlook for the future. Firstly, Safeguards is the set of measures performed by the controlling authority to verify that nuclear material and equipment are not diverted from their intended (peaceful) uses, e.g. are not used to produce nuclear weapons. The aim is to allow the use of nuclear energy whilst ensuring that civil nuclear materials remains in peaceful nuclear programmes. Its legal basis and scope is defined in the treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community signed in 1957. It has the necessary infrastructure for data handling, evaluation and inspection support. Co-operation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) assures effective and efficient safeguards under Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in the European Union. Secondly, the period under review was characterised by a steady increase in quantity and sensitivity of nuclear material under safeguards in the European Union. To cope with such an evolution, the Euratom Safeguards Office streamlined, improved, modernised and upgraded, on a regular basis, its methods, equipment and systems (including information technology). Overall, as a result of its activities in 1999 and 2000, and subsequent evaluations, the Euratom Safeguards Office did not find any indication that nuclear materials were diverted from their intended peaceful uses. The "Materials Unaccounted For" (MUF), which is one of the indicators of diversion was acceptable for nearly all the installations. Small discrepancies found during inspections or the material evaluation were rectified or are still being investigated with the operators concerned.�

  • DG ['Energy and Transport'],

Documents

• Non-legislative basic document published: COM(2001)0436
• Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading: A5-0196/2002
• Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
• Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading: T5-0346/2002

History

(these mark the time of scraping, not the official date of the change)