CYIL Vol. 4, 2013

JAKUB HANDRLICA CYIL 4 ȍ2013Ȏ University of Montpellier 1. Currently, he is teaching Administrative Law at the Facullty of Law , Charles University in Prague. He is a member of the International Nuclear Law Association and of its Working Group on Nuclear Liability and Insurance. Further, he is member of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Nuclear Law and correspondent to the OECD Nuclear Law Bulletin. In the years 2011-2013, he was participating in the work of the Group of Experts, established by the European Commission in order to identify Euratom’s competencies in the field of nuclear third party liability. 1. Introduction The European Union currently possesses exclusive competence as concerns acceding to international treaties which govern matters of jurisdiction and judicial co-operation. Consequently, the European Union is basically competent to accede to those international agreements which contain special provisions regulating this field. 2 However, there is a problem in relation to those international conventions that do not allow accession of the European Union, 3 which is also the case with all existing international nuclear liability conventions. 4 It is a matter of fact that it would be difficult to re-open negotiations in order to introduce a clause permitting ratification by the European Union. The way the Union copes with the situation is that it authorises Member States to accede to an international convention by a special decision. 5 Such authorisation was issued with regard to the ratification of the Protocol to Amend the Paris Convention of 2004 by those Member States which are Contracting Parties to the Paris Convention of 1960. And consequently, such a kind of authorization is needed also with regard to the ratification of the Protocol to Amend the Vienna Convention of 1997 by those Contracting Parties to it which entered the European Union during the “Eastern enlargement” . However, Poland ratified the Protocol to Amend the Vienna Convention on Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage of 1997 on 21 September 2010, and, consequently, the Protocol entered into force in this country on 21 December 2010. Poland did this 2 Eeckhoud, P. External Relations of the European Union: Legal and Constitutional Foundations , Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2004, pp. 135 et seq. 3 E.g. the International Convention on Civil Liability for Bunker Oil Pollution Damage of 2001 (the Bunkers Convention), International Convention on Liability and Compensation for Damage in Connection with the Carriage of Hazardous and Noxious Substances by Sea (the HNS Convention), Protocol of 2003 to the International Convention on the Establishment of an International Fund for Oil Pollution Damage etc. 4 Paris Convention on Third Party Liability in the Field of Nuclear Energy of 1960, Vienna Convention on Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage of 1963, Joint Protocol relating to the Application of the Paris and Vienna Convention of 1988, Convention on Supplementary Compensation of 1997, Protocol to Amend the Vienna Convention of 1997, Protocol to Amend the Paris Convention of 2004. 5 There is a similar situation in the area of liability of ship owners (maritime liability). See Ringbom, H.: EU Regulation 44/2001 and its Implications for the International Maritime Liability Conventions, Journal of Maritime Law & Commerce ,Vol. 35, 2001, pp. 1 et seq.