Euratom

From Free net encyclopedia

The European Atomic Energy Community, or EURATOM, is an international organisation composed of the members of the European Union. It was established on March 25, 1957, by a second treaty of Rome, signed the same day as the more famous Treaty of Rome, instituting the European Economic Community (EEC). The European Atomic Energy Community is a separate entity, but membership and organization is fully integrated with the European Union. The organisational structures of EURATOM and EEC (together with the now defunct European Coal and Steel Community -ECSC-), have merged in 1967, by virtue of the Merger Treaty (signed in 1965).

The denomination "the Communities" (plural), as in the Commission of the European Communities and the Court of Justice of the European Communities are occasional reminders of the existence of two distinct institutions.

The purposes of Euratom were to create a specialist market for atomic energy and distribute it through the Community and to develop nuclear energy and sell surplus to non-Community States.

Some suggest that Euratom should disappear in a similar way to ECSC and merge the European Community and the European Atomic Energy Community in a new European Community and Treaties.