38 Information on investment in the nuclear
sector
| (24809)
11941/03
COM(03) 370
| Draft Council Regulation amending Regulation (EURATOM) No. 2587/1999 defining the investment projects to be communicated to the Commission in accordance with Article 41 of the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community.
|
| Legal base | Article 41 Euratom; —; simple majority
|
| Document originated | 23 July 2003
|
| Deposited in Parliament | 20 August 2003
|
| Department | Trade and Industry
|
| Basis of consideration | EM of 29 August 2003
|
| Previous Committee Report | None
|
| To be discussed in Council | Not known
|
| Committee's assessment | Politically important
|
| Committee's decision | Cleared
|
Background
38.1 Regulation (Euratom) No. 2517/1999 requires that the Commission
be notified of nuclear investment projects where the cost of these
projects exceeds certain limits. The Regulation lays down the
broad parameters for information to be notified to the Commission.
For investment projects for the decommissioning of installations,
the Commission is to be notified only of the essential characteristics
of the investment.
The document
38.2 The present draft Regulation would amend Regulation No. 2517/1999
so as to require additional information. First, it would be necessary
to provide the Commission with plans for management of spent fuel
or radioactive waste originating from a notified investment and
the plans for the decommissioning of the installation. Secondly,
given the growing significance of decommissioning, the Commission
argues that it needs to examine decommissioning projects in detail
in the light of the objectives of the Euratom Treaty, so the proposal
would require more information on decommissioning projects. Finally,
the Commission would require information on the methods of financing
of investment projects, that is private or public funding. The
Commission says this information is necessary to allow it to facilitate
coordinated development of investment in the nuclear sector and
to assess how the proposed investment fits in with existing support
mechanisms at Community level, for example Euratom loans or research
aid.
The Government's view
38.3 The Minister of State for Energy, e-Commerce and Postal Services,
Department of Trade and Industry (Mr Stephen Timms) tells us:
"It is not clear that notification of the method of financing
(e.g. private or public) is a matter for the Euratom Treaty. It
appears to be intended to monitor investments for State aids purposes
(a competition matter under the EC Treaty). There is a question
as to whether such a provision is necessary given the State aids
notification procedures or whether the appropriate Treaty base
should be the EC Treaty and not Euratom. We expect that the Council
Legal Services will be requested to provide an opinion on this.
"The Government will want to be convinced
that the Commission's proposal will not duplicate unnecessarily
existing regulatory requirements under Article 37 of the Treaty
and will not affect the competitive position of the companies
involved. The Government will also want to be sure that the information
to be published by the Commission will be consistent with the
need to protect commercial confidentiality."
"The Government recently announced the intention
to create the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), which will
be responsible for the clean up of the UK's nuclear legacy. The
provisions in this Regulation will impact on the NDA if they become
responsible for submitting Article 41 investment notifications
for the public sector decommissioning projects which would have
been managed by BNFL and UKAEA. However, we envisage that this
impact will only be to the extent of the information which they
are required to provide to the Commission. In the current economic
climate it is unlikely that there will be many investments that
will need to be notified apart from those for radioactive waste
management and decommissioning."
Conclusion
38.4 We support the Government's intention to
ensure that the appropriate legal base is used for this proposal
and note the Government's view that the information required should
not duplicate existing requirements, should not be anti-competitive
and should not compromise commercial confidentiality. On that
basis we are content to clear the document.
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