7/5/2004
Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons Treaty: the Additional Protocol enters into force in all the Member States

On 30 April, the Vice-President of the European Commission, Loyola. De Palacio officially informed Mohamed El-Baradei, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency of the United Nations (IAEA) based in Vienna, of the readiness of the Member States of the EU to apply the Additional Protocol to the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons Treaty.

This move will set an example to the international community by guaranteeing a co-ordinated, smooth and uniform implementation of the Additional Protocol in the territory of the EU and by enabling international efforts to combat proliferation to be concentrated in less stable regions of the world. "Through this commitment, the EU has shown itself to be in the vanguard of states seeking universal coverage of these agreements and consequently the strengthening of the international community's efforts to halt the spread of nuclear weapons", said Loyola de Palacio.

The establishment of the Additional Protocol to the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons Treaty(1) follows the discovery of clandestine nuclear activities in certain countries, intended to allow the development of weapons of mass destruction. This Protocol was therefore designed to enable the IAEA to improve its ability to detect such activities, by extending the scope of its investigations beyond nuclear fuel cycle installations. It obliges signatory countries to make extensive declarations on all installations holding nuclear materials (even in small quantities) or engaging in nuclear fuel cycle activities, such as universities, research establishments, industrial complexes or hospitals. It is also aimed at installations which do not necessarily hold nuclear materials but which, for example, manufacture the nuclear equipment or have the necessary infrastructure for processing them.

The entry into force of the Additional Protocol will make the European Commission the main interface between the Member States and the IAEA. Most of the Member States' declarations on their installations will originate from or pass through the Commission's services in Luxembourg, before being transmitted to the Vienna Agency. In addition to this, the presence of the Commission's inspectors at site inspections will ensure uniform application of the Additional Protocol provisions across the EU.
The Commission already plays a very important role in the control of nuclear materials within the EU under the Euratom Treaty. It has its own corps of 200 inspectors and also maintains a database containing details of all civilian nuclear materials in the EU. Inspections are already carried out in some locations in co-operation with the IAEA.

(1) World-wide, 189 states are parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). Only three major states are not party to this treaty, India, Pakistan and Israel. The NPT aims to eliminate nuclear weapons completely by preventing their spread to other states and progressively reducing existing arsenals. All the countries which are parties to the NPT are required to allow inspectors to verify that their nuclear materials are not diverted to illegal weapons programmes.