Nuclear energy : third party liability, Protocol on the 1960 Paris Convention

PURPOSE : to improve compensation for victims of damage caused by nuclear accidents. LEGISLATIVE ACT : Council Decision 2004/294/EC authorising the Member States which are Contracting Parties to the Paris Convention of 29 July 1960 on Third Party Liability in the Field of Nuclear Energy to ratify, in the interest of the European Community, the Protocol amending that Convention, or to accede to it. CONTENT : the Council adopted this Decision authorising the Member States which are Contracting Parties to the 1960 Paris Convention on Third Party Liability in the Field of Nuclear Energy to ratify or accede to the Protocol amending that Convention, in the interest of the European Community. The Protocol amending the Convention of 29 July 1960 on Third Party Liability in the Field of Nuclear Energy, amended by the Additional Protocol of 28 January 1964 and by the Protocol of 16 November 1982 ("Paris Convention") was negotiated with a view to improving compensation for victims of damage caused by nuclear accidents. It provides for increasing liability amounts and extending the system of nuclear third party liability to environmental damage. Member States which are Contracting Parties to the Paris Convention shall take the necessary steps to deposit simultaneously their instruments of ratification of the Protocol, or accession to it, with the Secretary-General of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development within a reasonable time and, if possible, before 31 December 2006. Member States which are Contracting Parties to the Paris Convention shall exchange information with the Commission within the Council before 1 July 2006 on the date on which they expect their parliamentary procedures required for ratification or accession to be completed. The date and arrangements for simultaneous deposit shall be determined on that basis.�