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JAKUB HANDRLICA
CYIL 4 ȍ2013Ȏ
for simultaneous ratification creates a
de facto
barrier for further development of the
international nuclear liability law.
4. Authorisations
vis-à-vis
the “Vienna” Member States
4.1 “Eastern Enlargements” of the European Union
and nuclear liability conventions
Prior to 2004, the map of the European Union seemed to be basically identical
to the map of the Contracting Parties to the Paris Convention.
36
However, the 2004
and 2007 enlargements were
mainly
composed of the Contracting Parties to the
Vienna Convention.
37
Taking nuclear liability into consideration, the
new
Member States acceded into
the Union in four constellations:
1) as a Contracting Party to the Vienna Convention and to the Joint Protocol (which
was the case of Estonia, Bulgaria and of the Slovak Republic),
2) as a Contracting Party to both the Vienna Convention and the Joint Protocol and
being a Signatory to the Protocol of 1997 at the same time (which was the case of
the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Hungary and Poland),
3) as a Contracting Party to the Protocol of 1997 and to the Joint Protocol (which
was the case of Latvia and Romania),
4) as a Contracting Party to both the Paris Convention the Joint Protocol and being
a Signatory to the Protocol of 2004 at the same time (which was the case of only
one “new” Member State, Slovenia).
It is a matter of fact that
no specific requirements were set concerning nuclear
liability during the accession process of the new Member States
. On the other
hand, until the
“eastern”
enlargements of the Union, a kind of
harmonisation
in the
area of nuclear liability was reached, as basically all the Member States had been
basically Contracting Parties to the Paris Convention.
By accession of the “new” Member States to the European Union, the provisions
of the Vienna Convention have been
“grandfathered”
by Article 105 of the Treaty
establishing the European Atomic Energy Community.
38
Consequently, neither the
36
However, this is not true for the Joint Protocol. Major European “nuclear” states (in particular
Belgium, France, the United Kingdom and Spain) did not ratify the Joint Protocol, which weakens
its position as a “bridge” between the Paris and the Vienna liability regimes. For more details see:
Reyners, P.: Liability Problems Associated with the Current Patchwork Nuclear Liability Regime
within the EU States’, in Pelzer, N. (ed.):
Europäisches Atomhaftungsrechtim Umbruch
, Nomos Verlag,
Baden Baden, 2010, pp. 96
et seq.
37
Slovenia and the two Mediterranean islands of Malta and Cyprus being exceptions.
38
“The provisions of this Treaty shall not be invoked so as to prevent the implementation of agreements
or contracts concluded before 1 January 1958 or, for acceding States, before the date of their accession,
by a Member State, a person or an undertaking with a third State, an international organisation
or a national of a third State where such agreements or contracts have been communicated to the
Commission not later than 30 days after the aforesaid dates.”