Commission approves accession to Convention on Nuclear Safety
The European Commission has approved the accession of the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) to the 1994 Convention on Nuclear Safety on behalf of Euratom. The Member States are all contracting parties to the Convention and the Council has recently approved Euratom's accession. The objectives of the Convention are: - to achieve and maintain a high level of nuclear safety worldwide through the enhancement of national measures and international cooperation including, where appropriate, safety-related technical cooperation; - to establish and maintain effective defences in nuclear installations against potential radiological hazards in order to protect individuals, society and the environment from harmful effects of ionising radiation from such installations; - to prevent accidents with radiological consequences and to mitigate such consequences should they occur. In particular it contains a number of obligations which must be met by contracting parties and nuclear installations within their territories.