31992Y0708(02)

COUNCIL RESOLUTION of 18 June 1992 on the technological problems of nuclear safety (92/C 172/02)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community,

Whereas, on 22 July 1975, the Council adopted a resolution on the technological problems of nuclear safety (1), hereafter referred to as the '1975 resolution';

Whereas, on the basis of various communications from the Commission, the Council adopted conclusions on 26 September 1988, 21 June 1989 and 26 March 1990 reaffirming, inter alia, the central role it attached to the 1975 resolution;

Whereas, on 24 January 1992 the Commission forwarded to the Council a report for the period from April 1987 to April 1991 on the implementation of the resolution of 1975 stressing the need for the institutions responsible for ensuring and verifying nuclear safety within the Community to continue to participate actively in the well-established and continuing process of consultation and coordination, in the context of the 1975 resolution, and to extend the benefits of such work beyond the Community;

Whereas the issue of nuclear safety is an important one, particularly with regard to the protection of the health of the population and of workers as well as the protection of the environment from the dangers resulting from ionizing radiation, particularly in the view of the developments which have taken place throughout Europe,

1. RECOGNIZES the progress towards an equivalent and satisfactory degree of protection of the population and of the environment in the Community at the highest practical safety levels, as called for in the 1975 resolution, and in contributing to the international acceptance of similar high safety levels.

2. ENCOURAGES the Commission, national safety authorities, institutions specialized in nuclear safety evaluation, research and development institutions, nuclear utilities and manufacturers in the Community to continue to participate actively in the well-established and continuing process of consultation and cooperation, in the context of the 1975 resolution.

3. REAFFIRMS the importance of technological progress in relation to the safety of nuclear installations and in this connection invites the Member States and the Commission to continue and intensify concerted effort through significant joint actions on key safety issues. Thus it underlines the primary importance of nuclear safety research and technological innovation and the need to continue and increase action undertaken within the Community, including the study of future generations of reactors. This action may, where possible, be extended to third countries, notably those of Central and Eastern Europe and the Republics of the former Soviet Union.

4. REQUESTS the Member States to continue - with an active contribution from the Commission - to ensure greater concerted effort between the national safety authorities in the Community on safety criteria and requirements and on the incorporation of the conclusions reached into the practice followed in the Member States, in order to arrive at a system of safety criteria and requirements recognized throughout the Community.

5. EMPHASIZES the particular importance it attaches to nuclear safety in Europe and therefore requests the Member States and the Commission to adopt as the fundamental and priority objective of Community cooperation in the nuclear field, in particular with the other European countries, especially those of Central and Eastern Europe and the Republics of the former Soviet Union that of bringing their nuclear installations up to safety levels equivalent to those in practice in the Community and to facilitate the implementation of the safety criteria and requirements already recognized throughout the Community.

6. ENCOURAGES the Member States and the Commission to act in a coordinated manner in inter national fora on the basis of the achievements reached in the Community towards a system of internationally accepted nuclear safety criteria and requirements, in particular in the framework of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

(1) OJ No C 185, 14. 8. 1975, p 1.