Legal provisions of COM(2005)222-2 - Negotiation of the accession of Euratom (Euratom) to an international Framework Agreement among the Members of the Generation IV International Forum in the field of nuclear-related research - Main contents
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| dossier | COM(2005)222-2 - Negotiation of the accession of Euratom (Euratom) to an international Framework Agreement among the Members of the ... |
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| document | COM(2005)222  |
| date | May 25, 2005 |
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52005DC0222
Communication from the Commission to the Council concerning the negotiation of the accession of the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) to an international Framework Agreement among the Members of the Generation IV International Forum in the field of nuclear-related research /* COM/2005/0222 final */
[pic] | COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES |
Brussels, 25.5.2005
COM(2005) 222 final
COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL
concerning the negotiation of the accession of the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) to an international Framework Agreement among the Members of the Generation IV International Forum in the field of nuclear-related research
Proposal for a
COUNCIL DECISION
concerning the negotiation of the accession of the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) to an international Framework Agreement among the Members of the Generation IV International Forum in the field of nuclear-related research
(presented by the Commission)
COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL
concerning the negotiation of the accession of the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) to an international Framework Agreement among the Members of the Generation IV International Forum in the field of nuclear-related research
The 'Generation IV' initiative was launched by the US DOE at the beginning of 2000. It concerns concepts for one or more nuclear energy systems that can be operated in a manner that will provide a competitive and reliable supply of energy, while satisfactorily addressing nuclear safety, waste, proliferation and public perception concerns. Several European countries (United Kingdom, France and Switzerland), as well as Japan, Korea, South Africa, Argentina, Brazil and Canada, have joined. To this end, these countries signed the Charter of the Generation IV International Forum (GIF). The Commission decided on 4 November 2002 (Commission decision number C(2002)4287) that the Euratom Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) should adhere to the Charter. The Charter was subsequently signed on behalf of Euratom on 30 July 2003. Several Member States strongly supported this adhesion because they were also interested to participate in the research. Their participation is now possible through Euratom membership. This will provide the possibility for all interested Member States, as well as to countries associated to the Euratom Framework Programmes, to build competence and knowledge and gain information about the technical and safety issues connected to the next generation of nuclear reactor systems.
The “Technology Roadmap”, the main document describing the technical content of the research to be performed, identified six different nuclear energy systems for further development. The actual research work will take place at the level of individual projects performed by research institutes, industrial partners etc. and the integration of the results of these projects into one nuclear energy system will need to be monitored and steered at the appropriate level.
The performance of the research work necessitates a legal framework. Informal discussions have taken place from the beginning of the Generation IV initiative on what this framework should be. Issues such as governance of the research projects, use of existing know-how and intellectual property rights, creation of new intellectual property rights, dispute settlement, accession of new members etc. were addressed. The parties have now come to the conclusion that one legally binding framework agreement is necessary. Six arrangements, one for each system, and arrangements for each project within the GIF systems will be concluded as implementing instruments for the Framework Agreement.
The draft texts of the envisaged framework agreement and of a template for the six system arrangements were circulated and commented upon without a clear conclusive outcome.
At the end of November 2004, the US Chair of the GIF Policy Group, which is the highest Governance Committee, declared that, based on these discussions, it was able to issue a draft Framework Agreement and that this draft has been endorsed through the internal US inter-agency procedure. The Policy Group Chair tabled this Framework Agreement still as a draft, but its main elements were considered as no longer negotiable. The discussion on the text continued for a while, only for clarifying the wording of few articles.
After having been postponed twice, the Winter meeting of the Policy Group took place mid-January 2005 and, relatively soon after this meeting, a finalised version of the Framework Agreement was open for signature on 11 February 2005. The sole purpose of this Framework Agreement being to create a legally binding framework to allow R&D work at the project level, none of the other Parties objected to its opening for signature.
However, in this process, the Commission was confronted with the systematic request from the US Department of State aiming to prevent multi-governmental organisations, including the Community, to take part to deliberation to which one or more of their Member States participate. Finally, the Commission informed the US authorities that if the wording was not deleted, neither the Community, nor UK and France would be allowed to sign the agreement. As a consequence, the signing event has been delayed for two weeks. A compromise being necessary in order to facilitate UK and France signature, the Commission agreed to make the following declaration if and when it will adhere to the Agreement:
"In becoming a Party to this Framework Agreement, Euratom shall fully participate in all collaboration and deliberations under this Framework Agreement and any System Arrangement to which it is a signatory, but it shall not block consensus reached by the other Parties to this Framework Agreement or by the other signatories to System Arrangements where both it and one or more of its member states are signatories."
This declaration underlines that the Community will be full Party to the agreement, but will systematically stick together with its Member States. In order to ensure this solidarity, the Commission and Member State Parties to this Framework Agreement will make the declaration hereunder, that will be attached to the Council Minutes:
“The Commission and the Member State Parties to the Framework Agreement – currently, France and UK – will co-ordinate closely and harmonise their positions before any significant decision is taken in the implementation of the Framework Agreement and the relevant System Arrangements.“
The Commission will pursue the organisation of regular meetings, at least twice a year, open to any Member State or research organisation willing to contribute to the R&D undertaken within GIF. This co-ordination process will involve countries associated to the Euratom FP and thus include Switzerland, which is also a GIF Member.
The Commission considers that the proposed Framework Agreement should be acceptable for the Community and thus decided to submit it to the Council in accordance with the article 101.2 of the Euratom Treaty.
The Framework Agreement represents a step forward in the definition of the international co-operation in the field of Generation IV systems and translates the provisions of the GIF Charter, whose content marked a political agreement without financial implication and which was thus signed directly by the Commission, into a legally binding document. The accession to the Framework Agreement requires endorsement by the Council as it will constitute the premise of concrete research collaboration, which could not yet start in the absence of clear setting of conditions governing such collaboration. In addition, the duration of the Framework Agreement will cover more than two Framework Programmes, and at least two Council decisions will be needed to guide the Community contribution to GIF that shall match the Council decisions on the existing and future Framework Programmes.
Finally, it should be noted that there is no compulsory provision for financial exchanges or special budgetary allocations between the Parties. The existing provisions in this respect are subject to individual rules, practice and will of the partners. The only costs involved are not direct research costs, but refer to the technical highly specialised services of the NEA that will ensure the knowledge management of GIF. They can be covered to a large extent by the secondment of adequate staff to the Technical Secretariat, on a voluntary basis, from R&D organisations interested in the participation in specific GIF projects. Only a limited amount may be needed to cover the remaining part of the costs incurred by the secretarial services of the NEA. Therefore, the direct Community contribution to GIF will be designated by the R&D Framework Programmes and limited to possibilities offered by the Council decision adopting these Programmes. This will ensure the matching of the Euratom contribution to R&D activities under GIF projects with the priorities defined in the Framework Programmes. However, this will not prevent any Member State or national R&D organisation that wishes to contribute to GIF with its own means to channel its contribution through the Community, including in areas that are not covered by the Euratom contribution.
The last point on which the Commission wishes to draw the attention of the Council is the language regime. All partners were ready to accept the sole English version issued by the US-DOE as being authentic. However, because it will be signed by the Government of Canada a French version was necessary. It has been issued by the Canadian authorities and revised by the NEA.
In the light of the above, the Council is invited to adopt the attached draft decision.
EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM
The 'Generation IV' International Forum (GIF) initiative, launched at the beginning of 2000 by the US-DOE, concerns concepts for one or more nuclear energy systems that can be operated in a manner that will provide a competitive and reliable supply of energy, while satisfactorily addressing nuclear safety, waste, proliferation and public perception concerns. Currently there are eleven members of GIF, signatories of the GIF Charter: Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Euratom, France, Japan, Korea, South Africa, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the United States of America.
The GIF Charter was signed on behalf of Euratom on 30 July 2003 based on the Commission decision number C(2002)4287. Several Member States strongly supported this adhesion because they were also interested to participate in the research to be undertaken under GIF. Euratom membership provides the opportunity for all interested Member States, as well as to countries associated to the Euratom Framework Programmes, to participate in GIF R&D activities, to build competence and knowledge and gain information about the technical and safety issues connected to the next generation of nuclear reactor systems.
The technology aspects related to GIF are dealt with in the “Technology Roadmap”, finalised at the end of 2002, which identified six nuclear energy systems to pursue research on.
The performance of the research work necessitates a legal framework. The envisaged GIF legal architecture will include three levels of agreements (a Framework Agreement, System Arrangements and, respectively, Project Arrangements within each System) to allow for the performance of the research and sharing of the results.
The Framework Agreement, finalised at the beginning of 2005, represents a step forward in the definition of the international co-operation in the field of Generation IV systems and translates into a legally binding document the provisions of the GIF Charter. (The latter, whose content marked a political agreement without financial implication, was thus signed directly by the Commission.)
The accession to the Framework Agreement requires endorsement by the Council as it will provide a clear setting of conditions governing the concrete research collaboration within GIF. In addition, the duration of the Framework Agreement will cover more than two Framework Programmes, and at least two Council decisions will be needed to guide the Community contribution to GIF that shall match the Council decisions on the existing and future Framework Programmes.
Proposal for a
COUNCIL DECISION
concerning the negotiation of the accession of the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) to an international Framework Agreement among the Members of the Generation IV International Forum in the field of nuclear-related research
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community (hereinafter Euratom), and in particular Article 101(2) thereof,
Whereas;
(1) the United States of America, the United Kingdom, France, Switzerland, Japan, South Korea, South Africa, Argentina and Canada have created the Generation IV International Forum (GIF) with the purpose of developing concepts for one or more nuclear energy systems that can be operated in a manner that will provide a competitive and reliable supply of energy, while satisfactorily addressing nuclear safety, waste, proliferation and public perception concerns;
(2) Euratom has acceded to the Generation IV International Forum on 30 July 2003;
(3) the international co-operation and exchange in the R&D of nuclear-related technology, envisaged under the GIF, necessitates a legal framework in view of the management of the research work in a way that provides legal security to the participants and in particular in view of the protection of rights generated under the research work, such as intellectual property rights;
(4) to this end, the parties to GIF have agreed upon the conclusion of a framework agreement setting the framework conditions for the co-operation and for subsequent system and project arrangements;
(5) the Community contribution to GIF R&D projects shall remain within the scope of the Council decisions on Euratom Framework Programme;
(6) any Member State, its public or private research organisations or its industry may channel its direct contribution to these R&D works through the accession of the Community to the Framework Agreement;
HAS DECIDED AS FOLLOWS: