Accession of the Euratom to the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organisation, KEDO

The Committee voted to block any funds in the 1999 Budget reserve earmarked for the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organisation (KEDO) and for any other similar international agreement under the Euratom Treaty, until the Commission agrees to a formal Interinstitutional Agreement (IIA) that would oblige it to inform Parliament fully throughout any negotiations on any international agreement to be included under any article of the Euratom Treaty. Rapporteur Leo Tindemans (EPP, B) had recommended this line following the news that the Commission had concluded an agreement last December between Euratom and Canada for cooperation in the area of nuclear research. It had done this without informing Parliament during the negotiations or giving it an opportunity to make its views known before the conclusion of the agreement. Mr Tindemans stressed that the Commission had specifically agreed to involve Parliament in all such agreements in a series of letters last July between Presidents Jose Maria Gil Robles and Jacques Santer. The proposed agreement provides for a financial contribution to KEDO from the EU amounting to ·15 m per annum for five years. The funds are for the freezing and dismantling of the existing nuclear programme of North Korea. The first two instalments of the EU contribution for 1996 and 1997 have been paid. �