Setting up decommissioning funds for nuclear facilities - a competence problem for EURATOM

The nuclear package presented by the European Commission in the autumn of 2002 has added considerable practical significance to the problem of the vertical limits of competence between the Community and its member states within the framework of the Euratom Treaty. The question most important to Germany is the authority of the European Atomic Energy Community to oblige its member states to set up funds for financing the decommissioning of nuclear facilities. As the Euratom Treaty contains no explicit competences of Euratom for regulations of this type, the article examines the content and range of Art. 30 ff. of the Euratom Treaty, the unwritten authority resulting from factual connections and the nature of the problems involved, looks at the importance of international agreements as far as legal competences are implied, and deals with a possible competence based on the right to amend the Treaty under Art. 203, Euratom Treaty. (orig.)