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Nuclear energy
Co-operation with Central and Eastern European Countries
The Commission manages the PHARE (Council Regulation (EEC) No 3906/89 of 18 December 1989 (for Poland and Hungary), extended to other CEEC by the Regulation No 2698/90 of 17 September 1990) and TACIS (Council Regulation (EEC) No 2157/91 of 15 July 1991) assistance programmes in CEEC and NIS, which include a significant contribution to improving the level of nuclear safety in these countries.
The DGs ELARG and RELEX are formally responsible for nuclear safety aspects of the PHARE and TACIS programmes respectively, and receive technical support from external experts and other Commission services.
This Unit’s involvement goes back to the origin of the technical assistance programmes in the early nineties. It included:
- technical management of regulatory assistance (identification of needs, programming, selection of projects , technical follow-up and evaluation) ;
- participation in the work of the "Nuclear Safety Expert Group"
- participation in a number of "evaluation committees" (selection of tenders)
- general technical support to the service in charge of project implementation (SCR)
Assistance to Eastern regulatory authorities is an essential part of the programmes, since these organisations have the authority to grant and withdraw licenses and regulate siting, design, construction, commissioning, operation and decommissioning of nuclear installations.
Two expert groups - Regulatory Assistance Management Group (RAMG) and Technical Safety Organisations Group (TSOG) - which bring together respectively EU regulatory bodies and their technical support organisations, assist the Commission in the programming of this assistance and the implementation of the individual projects. Following the re-organisation of the Commission's nuclear safety services at the end of 2000, responsibilities for the programming of these activities were transferred to the DGs for external relations. The JRC also provides support in the technical evaluation of project results.
