Speech by Commissioner Piebalgs, "20 years after Chernobyl: Lessons for the future"

Andris Piebalgs, Energy Commissioner; "20 years after Chernobyl: lessons for the future", Speech at the European Parliament Plenary Session
Brussels, 26 April 2006

President, Honourable Members,

First of all, I want to start by paying tribute to lives lost and communities hurt in the Chernobyl devastation.

Secondly, I would like to share with you my personal experiences in connection with the Chernobyl disaster. At the time when it happened I was kayaking in Ukraine, and was only told about the incident 2 days later by the local population. Secondly, from Latvia, about 6000 so-called liquidators were called to help in the accident. Of those, 3500 are today invalids, and 500 have died. On a personal level, my brother in law was called as one of the liquidators.

On the 20th Anniversary of the Chernobyl accident, the European Commission joins the European Parliament in a thorough reflection on the consequences of the accident, and in particular, on the lessons we have learned.

Since 1991, the European Union has provided important financial assistance to improve nuclear safety in Russia, Ukraine, Armenia and Kazakhstan, including the consequences at the Chernobyl site itself. To the Ukraine alone, the Community has provided more than half a billion Euros in assistance to projects relating to nuclear safety, including assistance to the Chernobyl Shelter Fund.

As a measure of continued EU commitment, the Commission has also proposed an Instrument for Nuclear Safety to reinforce it outside the EU borders, for the period 2007-2013, with a proposed budget of 500 million €.

For the international community, the Chernobyl accident represented a turning point, raising awareness on the need for:

• application of rules and common standards in order to reduce the risk of an accident to a minimum, as well as

• preparation for immediate reaction in case of a radiological emergency.

A number of International Conventions signed under the auspices of the International Atomic Energy Agency reflect the response of the International Community in the wake of the accident:

• the Convention on Early Notification of a Nuclear Accident

• the Convention on Assistance in the Case of a Nuclear Accident or Radiological Emergency,

• the Convention on Nuclear Safety,

• the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material, and

• the Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management.

The European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM) and the Member States are Contracting Parties to all these Conventions, or are in the process of acceding to them.

At European level, I would recall firstly that the EURATOM Treaty Chapter on Health and Safety provides both for the protection of the health of workers, and for that of the general public against the dangers arising from radiation. The Treaty also obliges Member States and operators to supply the Commission with regular information on installations and nuclear material in their possession.

In addition, secondary legislation in place reflects the lessons learnt from the Chernobyl tragedy:

(1) On foodstuffs legislation. Soon after the accident, restrictions on certain agricultural imports were adopted and some border controls still apply today. If ever needed, a Community mechanism will allow fixing promptly the maximum permitted levels of contamination of foodstuffs and feedingstuffs.

(2) On emergency planning.

There is the obligation that:

• The necessary emergency plans must be drawn up at a national and local level, including inside the facilities, and emergency teams must be in place.

• Member States must cooperate in emergency planning and in responding to an emergency

(3) On information in cases of radiological emergency:

• A Community system is in place for the early exchange of information in the event of a radiological emergency ("ECURIE"). All Member States, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey participate in this mechanism.

• Furthermore, all Member States have established on their territory a network of facilities for monitoring the levels of radioactivity in the environment. It was such equipment in the Nordic countries that detected the Chernobyl accident well before it was revealed by the authorities of the USSR.

• Information of the population covers advance information to people living close to a nuclear installations as well as protection mechanisms to be provided to the population actually affected by such an emergency.

The European Union has supported financially the upgrading of the operating conditions of a number of nuclear installations also within the European Union. The reactors where sufficient upgrading could not be done are or will be closed. The staged closure of the reactors in Ignalina (Lithuania), Bohunice (Slovakia) and Kozloduy (Bulgaria) was agreed in the negotiations for accession to the European Union, with ongoing financial support from the European Union.

Since 1986, the European Union has made significant progress, in particular in the fields of safety, radiation protection and of emergency preparedness.

The Commission would also like to thank the Parliament yet again for its support of the EU role in nuclear safeguards, as expressed in the Resolution of 15 March 2006 on the Lisbon Strategy. This Resolution recalls that the EU possesses globally acknowledged expertise in the area of nuclear energy and notes that this expertise relates, inter alia, to the efficiency and quality of production installations, and to decommissioning processes.

It is also worth recalling that the Council in June 2004 set up a working party on nuclear safety, which is due to produce a final report at the end of this year.

Finally, the Parliament is aware that the Commission has made specific legislative proposals intended to provide the Union with common rules on nuclear safety, safe management of spent fuel and radioactive waste, decommissioning funds. Furthermore, the Commission will make every effort in the area of Research & Development to help to find a sustainable solution to the issue of the radioactive waste. Once again, I wish to thank the Parliament for its support.

I thank you very much for you attention.

| Arriba |

• Speech by EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs- "External projection of the EU internal energy market" (20/11/2006)
• European Commission takes a new step towards a EU-Kazakhstan agreement on peaceful use of nuclear energy (24/10/2006)
• European Community Statement - Special Commemorative Meeting in Observance of the 20th Anniversary of the Chernobyl Catastrophe (28/4/2006)
• EU Commission actions since the Chernobyl Disaster (21/4/2006)