Overview

European Nuclear Energy Forum

Public consultations

Nuclear Safety

European Governance in nuclear issues

Radioactive Waste

Decommissioning of Nuclear Installations

Radiation Protection

Transport of Radioactive Material

Nuclear Safeguards

EURATOM Supply Agency

Publications and Reports

Legislation

Towards a European Governance applied to nuclear issues

The European Commission has established its own concept of governance in the White Paper on European Governance issued on 25.7.2001, in which the term "European governance" refers to the rules, processes and behaviour that affect the way in which powers are exercised at European level, particularly as regards openness, participation, accountability, effectiveness and coherence. These five "principles of good governance" reinforce those of subsidiarity and proportionality. This White Paper was followed by a set of documents, notably an action plan and a report on the European Governance. All subsequent governance-related key documents can also be downloaded.

As a follow-up, the European Commission has issued on 1.02.2006 the White Paper on a European Communication Policy. The text of this White Paper became available for public consultation via the Internet from the 1.02.2006 until the 30.09.2006. A final report on the outcome of the public consultation "Communicating Europe in Partnership" has been adopted by the Commission on 3/10/2007. On the basis of this report the European Commission will draw up concrete proposals and action plans.

A very important issue that affects everyday life of EU citizens is the quality of their environment. Today, the European Union has a solid environmental legislation at its disposal. The EU has also acceded to International Conventions. In particular, the EU and its Member States have signed in 1998 the UNECE (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe) Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters, known as the Aarhus Convention. This Convention gives further rights to the citizens in environmental matters. The Aarhus Convention was transposed into Community law through the Directives 2003/4/EC (information) and 2003/35/EC (participation). Directive 2003/624/EC (access to justice) is still under discussion. Both adopted directives contain already some provisions on access to justice. The accession to the Aarhus Convention led to the revision of the environmental legislation of the EU, as appropriate, part of which covers nuclear issues (e.g. the 85/337/EEC Environmental Impact Assessment Directive has been amended by the 2003/35/EC Directive). In the specific field of nuclear energy, some legal uncertainties appear due to the fact that the Aarhus Convention was signed under the EC Treaty and not under the EURATOM Treaty.
Complementary to International Conventions and European legislation, various initiatives have been taken in EU Member States on municipality, local or national government levels since more than 20 years, to organise locally access to information and gradually participation in decision-making processes such as:

• Widespread stakeholders' consultation or extensive communication with the population.
• LICs (Local Information Commissions). LICs were established close to nuclear facilities from the 80's in several EU countries (e.g. France, United-Kingdom, Sweden) to inform the public and exercise a capacity of oversight on the site activities. LICs are implemented or envisaged now in more countries (Spain, Romania, Hungary…). In October 2006, several EU local representatives have expressed their intention to create EUROCLI, a European Association of Local Information Committees to exchange best practices between LICs in the European Union.
• GMF (Group of European Municipalities with Nuclear Facilities).
• Municipalities or groups of national municipalities (e.g. AMAC in Spain, KSO in Sweden or NuLeaf in the United-Kingdom).
• Local Partnerships (e.g. in Belgium).
• Entretiens européens.

The European Commission encourages and promotes the setting up of multilevel governance and participative democracy in the nuclear field, and provides support, as appropriate.

In order to get a comprehensive overview on the existing situation, Directorate General Energy and Transport has launched the study "Situation concerning public information about and involvement in the decision-making process in the nuclear sector"

	STUDY
	EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Irish version is not available

In this context, Directorate General Energy and Transport has supported the organisation of an international Workshop  held on 9-10 February 2006 in its premises in Luxembourg, gathering 50 delegates representing the various stakeholders concerned by nuclear activities in Europe (EC, National Authorities, local elected representatives, industry, NGOs, public experts, etc.). The main objective of this workshop, which was the first of this kind, was to present and discuss the results of the above-mentioned study, in order to get a feedback from the present stakeholders.