The Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community was signed at Rome on 25 March 1957, on the Capitoline Hill, by Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the Federal Republic of Germany. Four authentic texts: Dutch, German, French and Italian. Depositary: the Italian Government. Registered with the United Nations as UNTS 4301. Entry into force: 1 January 1958, after deposit of the six ratifications (Italy 23 November 1957, France 25 November, the Federal Republic 9 December, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands 13 December). It is not the EEC Treaty signed the same day, a distinct instrument.

Articles 1–2: the Community is to create the conditions for the development of civil nuclear industries. Tasks, at principle level: research and training, dissemination of knowledge, health-protection standards, investment, joint undertakings, supply through an Agency, safeguards, ownership of special fissile materials, a nuclear common market, and external relations. Technical annexes are not reproduced, and this is not a plant handbook.

It originally had its own Commission, Council, Assembly and Court. The Merger Treaty of 8 April 1965, in force on 1 July 1967, unified those organs with those of the ECSC and the EEC; Euratom’s legal personality remains separate. Unlike the EEC Treaty, the 1957 text has not been rewritten in substance; it was not absorbed by the Treaty of Lisbon.

Safeguards and the Supply Agency are instruments of control and allocation, not of proliferation. Annexed protocols were signed at Brussels on 17 April 1957, after the Rome conference. The Final Act of the intergovernmental conference is a third instrument of the same day (UNTS 4300–4302).

The 27 EU member States are parties today; Euratom remains a distinct community with the same membership. It is not a defence treaty and does not describe weapons.

Cover: the Palazzo dei Conservatori on the Campidoglio, Rome, the place of signature of the Treaties of Rome; no particular inner room is claimed. Wikimedia Commons, free licence.

Sources consulted: Euratom Treaty; Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM) (UNTC).