Foreign Relations of the United States, 1958–1960, Western European Integration and Security, Canada, Volume VII, Part 1

61. Memorandum of Conversation⁰

June 9, 1959, 4:30 p.m.

SUBJECT

• Meeting with European Community Presidents

PARTICIPANTS

• [See Attached List]¹

President Hirsch began his presentation on the status of the work of the European Atomic Energy Community by stating that as far as EURATOM is concerned there is a completely integrated staff with members from the six countries working as a team. He said that the internal nuclear Common Market is established and has been functioning since January 1, 1959. This means that within the six countries there are no barriers to trade in nuclear products. With regard to the Community’s external relations, a low external common tariff has been established and as an interim measure the principal items in nuclear trade have been relieved of even this duty for a period of three years.

President Hirsch went on to stress the aim of the Community to develop to the fullest extent possible the research necessary for an expansion of activity in the nuclear field. He said that an inventory of all existing facilities has been completed and that this was a major task. He added that this preliminary inventory may not be as complete as he would have wished but that certain groups, particularly the private industrial research laboratories, are reluctant to reveal full details of their work. He was sure, however, that this situation would improve.

With regard to the major research program called for by the Treaty, the Commission had chosen two methods for carrying out this program:

1. Placing contracts with existing research centers, and

2. The creation of common research centers.

With regard to the first method, contracts are now in preparation for work to be done in French research centers under the control of the French Commissariat for Atomic Energy (CEA), at the Max Planck Institute in Munich and at a Netherlands research center. He mentioned in connection with these first contracts that work would proceed on fusion development. The one firm rule established by the Commission for work in existing centers is that there must be a “European” team working on the project. He said that a difficulty on the research side is that there are really too many small research units performing duplicating work and that, therefore, the problem was to coordinate and expand the work being done in these institutions in a way which insures the best use of technical talents available.

With regard to the second method for carrying out research, President Hirsch indicated that the first common research center would be in northern Italy at Ispra but that it would not be started from scratch. He said that building a new center would be too costly and would also take too much time. The Commission has decided therefore to negotiate the transfer [of] existing installations to EURATOM control. He said that two other common research centers would be established; one, in The Netherlands; and another, at Karlsruhe—the latter concentrating on plutonium work.

President Hirsch said that the Commission had already issued rules for the protection of health and safety and that now it was up to the national governments to put these rules into force by passing appropriate legislation.

He indicated that the Commission had given urgent attention to the problem of third-party liability insurance protection and that an agreement had been reached to use the OEEC agreement on third-party liability as a basis for action in the Community but that additional coverage was needed. Therefore, the Commission has drafted a supplementary convention to afford up to $100 million of indemnity protection over the insurable amounts provided for in the OEEC draft of $5-$15 million. He said that the EURATOM convention had been submitted to the Council of Ministers but that the final steps would require national legislation as well as ratification of both the OEEC and EURATOM texts.

President Hirsch then described the EURATOM program with third countries. He began by expressing his thanks for the great assistance of the U.S. Government to EURATOM during its early organizing phase. The Joint Program, he said, proved essential in establishing EURATOM’s position in the nuclear field. President Hirsch admitted that the energy situation had changed in Europe and that in some minds the fears of energy shortage of two years ago had been somewhat removed with Suez behind us, relative stability in the oil producing areas, as well as the increased availability and low price of conventional sources of energy. He mentioned specifically the oil and natural gas discoveries in North Africa. He said that this had perhaps made less urgent the need for developing large-scale atomic power resources but that he could not help but believe there would be tremendous future needs for power in Europe as the European economy grows. He mentioned the fact that European production of power is only now approximately 230 million kilowatts whereas the United States, with almost the same population, is producing about 720 million kilowatts. He stated that perhaps within the next five years nuclear power would not be an important source but that certainly in 20 years nuclear power would have to take its place alongside conventional sources of energy. He stated that the US/EURATOM Joint Program was, therefore, only a “drop in the lake of energy requirements” and that in effect it was a minimum program to provide experience to European utilities and industry in the operation of large-scale nuclear power plants.

President Hirsch then referred to the negotiation of a comprehensive US/EURATOM agreement, mentioning in this connection the complications caused by the existing bilaterals and the fears of certain countries that something might be taken away from them if they gave up their bilateral relationship with the United States. He stated, however, that although the negotiation of the comprehensive agreement may not be an easy task, it should be possible to find formulae to satisfy all concerned.

President Hirsch then described the other agreements EURATOM has signed with third countries, mentioning specifically the UK Agreement which, he said, has worked out very well. Several working-level committees have been established and are now carrying on discussions dealing with criticality problems and fusion. There will also be cooperation on the advanced British designed gas-cooled reactor.

President Hirsch indicated that EURATOM has had extensive talks with Canada and it is the Commission’s hope that an agreement will shortly be signed providing for very close collaboration with Canada on heavy-water reactor development with which the United States should also be associated.

President Hirsch indicated that EURATOM was working closely with the OEEC and that in addition to work on health and safety and third-party liability, EURATOM had entered into agreements to contribute to and cooperate with OEEC projects such as Dragon and Eurochemic.

With regard to the IAEA in Vienna, President Hirsch said that the situation was quite different and was complicated particularly by the Russian attitude which considers EURATOM not to have purely pacific goals. President Hirsch said that he would appreciate any U.S. assistance in helping to develop EURATOM relations with the International Agency.

President Hirsch also mentioned the creation of an European University called for by the Treaty and said this was a very important development for the future of Europe. He said that this institution should not be solely designed to train nuclear scientists but should rather address itself to the broader problem of academic training in all areas.

Finally, President Hirsch stated that the principal problem facing all the Communities is the question of economic expansion. He said that the Russian economic expansion was 8–10 percent per year and that, therefore, a 3–5 percent expansion for the European Community was not enough. He agreed with President Hallstein that there should be no “planned economy” in the Russian sense but he felt that there was a great need for planning to assure an expansion of the economy. He considered the Community countries to be underdeveloped countries in the sense that their full growth potential was not being realized.

Mr. Dillon expressed his thanks for the full report that President Hirsch had made on the work of EURATOM. He expressed once again the full support of the United States Government for the Joint Program and stressed our belief that it would be successfully implemented. He said that the United States will do all that it can in working with EURATOM to assure this success. He agreed that the one million kilowatt program was a modest program which would give essential experience to Europe in the operation of nuclear power plants.

0. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 840.00/6–959. Limited Official Use. Drafted by Kupinsky and approved by Brewster on June 29. Regarding this meeting, see Document 59.
1. See footnote 2, Document 59.