The French decision to join EURATOM was conditioned on the regional agency not impinging on national nuclear programs. As early as 1955, French Prime Minister Guy Mollet had instructed French negotiators that “Euratom will not be an obstacle toward the possible decision of France … to build nuclear weapons.”  While EURATOM’s jurisdiction would be limited to negotiating purchases of fissile materials, promoting trade with the United States and the United Kingdom, and exchanging reactors designs and civilian technology among members of the Atlantic community, Couve de Murville credited EURATOM with a fringe benefit: monitoring West Germany. In this spring 1960 letter to Prime Minister Michel Debré about revising the treaty, he warned against the removal of EURATOM controls over raw uranium and thorium or enriched uranium. Their removal, he cautioned, would create a dilemma: “either abandon the idea that German’s renunciation of atomic armaments could be enforced or support the enforcement of equivalent controls under the West European Union, which … would interfere in the direction of our programs and the development of our nuclear weapons.”

This presentation, given by Felix Oboussier, discusses the potential impacts the NPT may have on the Euratom Treaty. He concludes that a definitive opinion on the whether or not the requirements and objections of non-nuclear member states have been fully taken into account seems premature.

This article by Jan Gijssels discusses the legal implications of Euratom and the proposed Non-Proliferation Treaty.

This document includes council directives to the Commission for the negotiation of a Euratom verification agreement in accordance with Article III, 4, of the NPT.

This interview with M. Margulies describes the Euratom Treaty as a tangible manifestation of a desire for peace.

This note from the Euratom Commision details the possible construction of an isotope separation plant in the European Community.

This note to the Council of Ministers details the jurisdiction and consequences stemming from the American request that an Article III be included into the NPT.

This memo to the Council of Ministers from the Euratom Commission examines the Russian draft of Article III of the NPT. It draws attention to the gradual convergence of Russian and American positions on the control clauses of the Treaty.

This memo to the Euratom Commission detailed the reaction of the Council of Minister on the problems in the proposed non-proliferation treaty.

This note describes an American memo detailing the Soviet project to create an Article III in the Nonproliferation Treaty Note.