The European Commission has more than 65 years of experience in developing and implementing legislation at the EU level to ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of Euratom safeguards.
The Commission implements Euratom safeguards within a legal framework encompassing the Euratom Treaty, the Euratom Safeguards Regulation and international agreements.
Euratom Treaty
The Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom), lays down the foundation for the peaceful use of nuclear materials and technologies in all EU countries. It gives powers to the Euratom Community for establishing relations with other countries and international organisations to foster progress in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
The Treaty requires the Community to make certain, by appropriate supervision, that civil nuclear materials are not diverted to purposes other than those for which they are intended. Chapter 7 of the Treaty outlines the system of safeguards, which constitutes the basis for this supervision. In this respect, nuclear materials mean ores, source materials or special fissile materials.
The Treaty specifies 2 objectives. Namely, it requires the Commission to satisfy itself that
- nuclear materials are not diverted from their intended uses as declared by the users, and
- the provisions relating to supply and any particular safeguarding obligations assumed by the Euratom Community under international agreements are complied with.
For achieving these objectives, the Treaty requires anyone setting up or operating an installation for the production, separation or other use of nuclear materials or for the processing of irradiated nuclear materials to declare to the Commission the basic technical characteristics of the installations, and produce and keep operating records to permit accounting for ores, source materials and special fissile materials used, produced or in case of transport.
Euratom Safeguards Regulation
The obligations of the users of nuclear materials (operators) are further detailed in Commission Regulation on the application of Euratom safeguards (Euratom/2025/974), which is based on Chapter 7 of the Euratom Treaty. It is the latest regulation to this effect since 1959, when the first Commission rules for the application of Euratom safeguards were adopted.
It describes in detail what, when and how operators have to declare and report to the Commission. It also specifies the records that operators are obliged to keep, allowing the Commission to verify that nuclear materials are not diverted from their intended uses.
The Regulation entered into force on 6 July 2025, repealing the previous Commission Regulation (Euratom) No 302/2005. However, Annexes III to IX and XII to XV will be repealed with effect from 16 October 2028, when the new Annexes III to X and XII to XV will apply.
International agreements
The Euratom Community and its Member States are parties to multilateral Safeguards agreements and their related additional protocols with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) concluded in implementation of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). The IAEA, in its verification, takes due account of the effectiveness of the Euratom safeguards system in accordance with the provisions of the Safeguards Agreements. The Commission and the IAEA collaborate closely by performing joint on-site inspections and using common instruments and techniques, while maintaining their abilities to draw independent conclusions. For more than half a century, the Commission has acted as a reliable partner to the IAEA in this domain.
The Euratom Community is a party to bilateral Nuclear cooperation agreements with third countries supplying nuclear material to the Euratom Community or using nuclear fuel services in the Community. For international partners, Euratom safeguards offer a guarantee that nuclear materials entering the EU comply with the NPT, as well as with other international obligations.
Implementation of Euratom safeguards
The safeguards activities implemented by the Commission involve
- ensuring the compliance of operators with respect to Euratom safeguards provisions
- monitoring and evaluating the performance of the operators’ nuclear material accounting and control system, and
- verifying the non-diversion of nuclear material, confirming the credibility of the operators’ declarations and reports
The Commission verifies the correctness, completeness and coherence of the operators’ declarations and reports of flows and stocks of nuclear materials as well as the correspondence of the physical reality to these documents.
The Commission draws safeguards conclusions based on findings of its safeguards activities. Under the Euratom Treaty, it has the right to impose sanctions in case of infringement of Euratom safeguards provisions.
Safeguards by design
The further development of nuclear power, as a strategic technology to achieve carbon neutrality, and the success of initiatives such as the European Industrial Alliance on Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), also rely on the implementation of efficient and effective nuclear safeguards.
Early consideration of safeguards in the design of new types of installations (safeguards by design) is crucial for their successful deployment. Safeguards by design has been systematically applied at the world’s first deep geological repository for spent nuclear fuel in Finland. Dozens of SMRs designs are under discussion in the EU and all of them will be under Euratom safeguards.
Nuclear materials have been used in the EU in various installations and activities associated with nuclear power generation or with other industrial, medical and research applications. Safeguards have to be ensured, even when nuclear materials are no longer used or when installations are shut down and/or under decommissioning.
Further information is available in our Safeguards by design fact sheet published in 2026.