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

Publications and Reports

|Introduction

|Nuclear installation safety

|Radioactive waste management

|Decommissioning of nuclear installations

|Rehabilitation of contaminated territories

|Project funding

Project Funding

|Introduction

|Projects in the EU

|Projects in the Candidate Countries and NIS

Introduction

When the radioactive waste management and nuclear safety services were part of DG-Environment, funding for studies and projects and other activities such as concerted actions was provided principally via two Commission budget lines:

• one covering projects within the EU in support of the two Community Plans of Action in the fields of radioactive waste and nuclear safety. In the case of radioactive waste and decommissioning, the activities are in line with the strategy in COM(94) 66 final of 2 March 1994 (40 KB);
   

• one covering projects in the Candidate Countries and the NIS.  These activities had an essentially co-operative aspect, with the maximum involvement of the institutions and industry in the countries concerned. In the case of the Candidate Countries, this co-operation was an essential precursor to their eventual integration - now imminent - as full Member States. The emphasis, management and scale of these activities were essentially different from those of the much larger PHARE and TACIS nuclear safety assistance programmes (see also nuclear safety and enlargement).

Contractual rules

In the case of study and service contracts with external contractors, standard Commission tendering, contractual and financial regulations applied, e.g. GATT rules enforced, reports in the public domain (refer to lists of reports). The Commission's technical services were responsible for the drafting of Terms of Reference, evaluation of tenders and project management. In the case of radioactive waste management, decommissioning and rehabilitation of contaminated territories, a working group made up of technical experts from the EU Member States was consulted regarding implementation of new projects and evaluation of progress and final reports. Some projects involved co-financing arrangements and were not funded 100% by the Commission - in these cases the reports may not be publicly available.

Recent changes

Following the re-organisation of the Commission's nuclear safety services in late 2000, EU policy-related activities became the responsibility of DG-Energy and Transport and the external budget line was split in two and taken over by DG-Enlargement and DG-External Relations (Candidate Countries and  NIS respectively), though DG-Energy and Transport continued to be involved in the technical evaluation of on-going contracts in the Candidate Countries.

Both the internal and external budget lines were discontinued at the end of 2002 - one or two on-going projects continued into 2003.

Currently, a proposal is being considered to establish a multi-annual programme for the funding of activities in the general field of nuclear safety from the year 2004. This will be in support of the new Community approach to nuclear safety.