欧洲原子能共同体（EURATOM），由欧洲联盟成员国组成的国际组织。 在1957年3月25日，《欧洲煤钢联营条约》成员国签订《罗马条约》，决定成立共同市场及原子能共同体。 后来，根据《1965年布鲁塞尔条约》（Merger Treaty）在1967年将《欧洲煤钢联营条约》及欧洲经济共同体的合并到统一架构内。如今，欧洲原子能共同体已经在欧洲联盟架构内。
欧洲原子能共同体成立目的为核子能源联营及分销共同市场，并可出售剩余核子能源至境外国家。
最初ECSC提议扩展其权力以涵盖其他种类的能源。但是ECSC的主席Jean Monnet认为需要另一个组织去处理核能。一个由Louis Armand负责对欧洲核能使用的研究认为，基于煤的衰竭和减少对石油的依赖核能是需要发展的。 BENELUX和德国都认为需要一个共通的市场，而法国则基于保护主义反对。最后Monnet提议一个分开的原子能源经济组织以联合各国。
The Intergovernmental Conference on the Common Market and Euratom at Val Duchesse in 1956 drew up the essentials of the new treaties. Euratom would foster co-operation in the nuclear field, at the time a very popular area, and would, along with the EEC, share the Common Assembly and Court of Justice of the ECSC, but not its executives. Euratom would have its own Commission, with fewer powers than the ECSC's High Authority, and Council. On 25 March 1957, the Treaties of Rome were signed by the ECSC members and on 1 January 1958 they came into force.[2][3][4]
To save on resources, these separate executives created by the Rome Treaties were merged in 1965 by the Merger Treaty. The institutions of the EEC would take over responsibilities for the running of the EEC and Euratom, with all three then becoming known as the European Communities although each legally existed separately. In 1993, the Maastricht Treaty created the European Union, which absorbed the Communities into the European Community pillar, yet Euratom still maintains a distinct legal personality and the treaty remains in force relatively un-amended from its original signing.
The European Constitution was intended to consolidate all previous treaties and increase democratic accountability in them. The Euratom had not been amended in the same way the other treaties had and hence the European Parliament had been granted few powers of it. However, the reason it had gone unamended was the same reason the Constitution left it to remain separate from the rest of the EU: anti-nuclear sentiment among the European
评论