On 30 January 2003, the European Commission adopted two proposed directives, one defining general principles of the safety of nuclear facilities, the other the management of spent fuel and radioactive waste. However, it was impossible for the Council of the European Union to adopt these two texts, commonly referred to as the "nuclear package" owing to the opposition by several Member States of the Union, who felt that texts such as resolutions or recommendations, which are not legally binding, would be preferable.

In June 2004, the Council of the European Union adopted conclusions finding that there was no consensus on this subject and it recommended continuing with the work aimed at achieving progress in nuclear safety harmonisation, similar to the work done by WENRA (see point 3.5.2 below). The Presidency of the Council therefore accepted and agreed to implement a plan of action proposed by the Council's Atomic Questions Group during its meeting of 27 October 2004.

The ASN believes a move towards harmonisation of nuclear safety principles and standards is required and thus plays an active part in the activities of the ad hoc group created for implementation of this European action plan. With a view to achieving greater efficiency, three sub-groups were set up, each of which is responsible for dealing with a particular topic: safety of nuclear installations (SG n° 1), safety of spent fuel and radioactive waste management (SG no. 2) and decommissioning fund (SG no. 3). France is represented in each of the sub-groups and the ASN more particularly participates in SG no. 1 and has the role of chairman and secretary of SG no. 2. The ad hoc group is required to submit a report by the end of 2006.

a) The aim of the assistance programmes

The July 1992 G7 summit in Munich defined three priority areas for nuclear safety assistance to the countries of central and eastern Europe and the newly independent states which were formerly part of the Soviet Union:
- to contribute to improving the operating safety of existing reactors;
- to provide funding for short-term improvements to the least safe reactors;
- to improve safety supervision organisation, making a clear distinction between the responsibilities of the different entities concerned and reinforcing the role and scope of local nuclear safety authorities.

Assistance programmes were set up by the European Commission to achieve these goals. They constitute the nuclear part of the PHARE programme (which is more particularly aimed at the countries applying for membership of the Union) and the TACIS programme (intended for countries of the former Soviet Union).

The European Commission set up the Regulatory Assistance Management Group (RAMG), comprising the nuclear safety and radiation protection authorities from the countries of the European Union, to advise it on assistance requests from the eastern European countries. The PHARE programmes are coming to an end for the ten countries which entered the European Union on 1 May 2004, but are continuing for the two candidates for whom entry is planned for 1 January 2007: Bulgaria and Romania.

b) ASN participation in the assistance programmes

The European Commission's PHARE and TACIS programmes

The nuclear part of these programmes covers the three areas of assistance defined by the G7, but the nuclear safety authorities of the European Union only participate directly in the last one, by providing their joint assistance to their counterparts in the eastern European countries.

The ASN is pilot for the TACIS programmes in Ukraine and Kazakhstan. In 2005, on behalf of the European Commission, it carried out two missions to assess the impact of the TACIS programmes on improvements to nuclear safety in Ukraine and to evaluate the assistance needs of the Ukrainian nuclear safety authorities. February 2005 saw the final meeting of the 5th regulatory assistance project in Ukraine (UK/RA/05) which lasted 15 months. The ASN also worked on preparing the 6th project, which will run until mid-2008.