Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-07-01-Speech-1-078"
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"en.20020701.6.1-078"2
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".
Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, 11 September is still on everyone's lips, and we know that nuclear material has to be handled with very great care. That is why we have a Euratom Safeguards Office (ESO) to work very intensively on ensuring that the quantity of such material available is properly checked and monitored, and to work to ensure that such materials are used only for peaceful purposes.
Moreover, the agreements entered into by the European Union and its individual Member States must be adhered to, and we should take care that, in future, nuclear materials are subject to even more scrutiny than at present. We are all aware of the bomb threats in America, where terrorist groups have, threatened, among other things, to detonate such material in exposed places. With this in mind, it is now of all times that we should be making it our concern that these materials are secured in future. Our basic assumption is that our primary interest is in protecting the public. Indeed the Euratom treaty states that the health of the public and of the workforce is to be protected from the dangers of ionising radiation, and the Commission is entitled to implement appropriate measures for this purpose.
I believe that now is the time for common European safety standards for nuclear power stations and for the transport nuclear material to be established. I would like very warmly to thank Commissioner de Palacio for committing the Commission to becoming active in this area and to producing standards. I think Parliament has already called for that in the Schwaiger Report on the accession of new states, which called for a code of nuclear safety even before the new Member States join. This report has already been adopted by Parliament. I also assume that it will, tomorrow, adopt the call for the public to be protected.
The European Court of Auditors has, of course, already called for safety standards, and Parliament also has its right to propose legislation, and, according to the Euratom treaty, can submit appropriate proposals on matters with regard to which it believes that a Community act is necessary. Parliament's opinion is that a Community act is very definitely required on these issues. The EU possesses at present no uniform safety standards, and if we were to make it known today that this or that nuclear power station appeared to be dangerous, we actually have no legal status on the basis of which such assertions could be confirmed or refuted. That is why, even before these countries join us, safeguards are of such particular importance to us.
We do not believe that finance should prove an insuperable obstacle. It is safeguards that are of particular importance for us. In this area as in others, we will have high expectations of the new ten countries that want to join the EU, and we ought also to consider role the ESO might play in future. We are therefore of the opinion that we should have two directives; one on the transport of nuclear materials and a second on the auditing, certification and supervision of nuclear safety. It might also be possible to develop the ESO into an independent authority with the capacity to actually supervise and co-ordinate these activities itself. That would be a splendid opportunity for the European Union to lay down definite Europe-wide conditions for the future.
My final point is that Parliament takes the view that this issue should also be discussed in the Convention, which should, on these matters, contribute new plans and ideas for the future and initiate reflection on how we may, in future, take effective action in this area."@en1
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