On 12 May 1955, commenting in the Brussels daily newspaper Le Soir on the implications of the revival of European integration, the Socialist MP for Brussels, Marc-Antoine Pierson, advocates the establishment by the six Member States of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) of a European nuclear energy community which would involve the integration of nuclear energy production for peaceful purposes.

In 1956, Victor Bodson, Luxembourg Minister for Transport and Electricity and Chairman of the National Nuclear Energy Council (CNEN), outlines the situation in Luxembourg with regard to the implications of the industrial use of nuclear energy.

On 26 January 1956, the daily newspaper Luxemburger Wort highlights the dangers involved in the setting up of a supranational atomic authority in Europe.

On 23 February 1956, the Belgian economist, Louis Ameye, warns readers of the Brussels daily newspaper Le Soir against the proposed supranational European atomic organisation and, pointing to the special situation of Belgium resulting from its Congolese uranium, emphasises the need to establish a comprehensive common market in Europe.

On 9 March 1956, the Antwerp Catholic daily newspaper La Métropole reviews the final report from the Federation of Belgian Industries (FIB) on nuclear cooperation in Europe.

On 9 March 1956, the Belgian daily newspaper La Libre Belgique outlines the mobilisation of Belgian private industry for the construction of nuclear power stations and calls on the country to play a leading role in current research.

On 10 March 1956, in the daily newspaper La Nation Belge, Maurice Masoin, Professor of Economics at the Catholic University of Louvain, considers the proposal from the Federation of Belgian Industries (FIB/VBN) which, entirely in the interests of Belgium, seeks to reconcile the proposed Euratom Community with the scheme backed by the Organisation for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC).

On 21 March 1956, the Antwerp Catholic daily newspaper La Métropole criticises the attitude of the European Socialist parties which advocate the nationalisation of the nascent nuclear industry in Europe.

On 23 April 1956, Maurice Masoin, Professor of Economics at the Catholic University of Louvain (CUL) and Secretary-General of the International Institute for Public Finance, delivers a lecture to the Charleroi section of the ‘Mars et Mercure’ industrial and military group in which he outlines the implications of nuclear energy and of the establishment by the six Member States of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) of a nuclear energy organisation, Euratom.

Le 15 mai 1956, le mensuel catholique belge La Revue nouvelle pointe les avantages et les difficultés de la mise en place d'une Communauté atomique européenne.

On 26 June 1956, reporting on the beginning, the same day in Brussels, of the work of the Intergovernmental Conference on the Common Market and Euratom, the Conservative daily newspaper La Nation Belge outlines the implications, particularly for France, of the establishment by the Six of an organisation to be responsible for nuclear power.

On 21 November 1956, officials of the Luxembourg Foreign Ministry draft an internal memorandum on the conditions for and possible consequences of full participation in Euratom.

A European workman carries out safety checks in a uranium mine.

While the Six are negotiating the establishment of a European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom) in order to guarantee the security of Western Europe’s energy supplies, the uranium reserves, particularly those situated in the Shinkolobwe mine in the Belgian Congo, have already been mined since the 1930s.

On 16 July 1954, in anticipation of the forthcoming working meeting of the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), Jules Guéron, Director for General Programmes and Head of the Physical Chemistry Department, drafts a note in which he outlines the state of nuclear equipment in France and makes proposals for a second five-year plan to be drawn up as part of France’s nuclear effort. Jules Guéron was involved in the launch and development of the CEA, France’s dedicated nuclear energy organisation.

On 23 January 1956, in the French daily newspaper Le Figaro, the philosopher Raymond Aron considers the impact of the proposed European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom) on German nuclear rearmament and the political implications of the supranational nature of Euratom.

On 2 July 1956, Jules Guéron, Director of the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), draws up a note in which he emphasises the need for the future Member States of the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom) to develop jointly prototypes of nuclear power stations in order to generate nuclear power and, in so doing, make Europe more independent in terms of energy.

On 5 July 1956, Francis Perrin, High Commissioner for Atomic Energy and member of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN), gives an address to the French National Assembly in which he outlines the implications of the use of atomic energy and refers to the issue of international cooperation in the field of nuclear power.

On 5 July 1956, as parliamentary debates are held in France on Euratom, Louis Armand, Commissioner of the French Government and Chairman of the Industrial Equipment Committee at the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), emphasises the importance of European cooperation in the field of nuclear energy.

On 13 July 1956, the French Foreign Ministry sends a telegram to its diplomats abroad setting out the French Government’s position regarding the planned European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom).

On 16 November 1956, drawing economic and political lessons from the Suez Crisis and from the oil shortages which it caused in Europe, the Foreign Ministers of Germany, Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands appoint a committee of ‘Three Wise Men’ — the German Franz Etzel, the Frenchman Louis Armand and the Italian Francesco Giordani — to draw up a report on the amount of nuclear energy that could be produced quickly in the six countries and on the resources to be implemented to that end.

On 21 December 1956, the Secretariat-General of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs drafts a memorandum in which it considers the impact of the Euratom project on the development of civilian and military nuclear energy programmes in France and Europe.

On 4 January 1957, the French daily newspaper Le Monde publishes an article by French geographer Maurice Le Lannou, who is concerned at Europe’s increasing energy dependence. Between the coal era and the future nuclear age, oil is the fuel that is being widely used to run Western industry, and it needs to be imported in large quantities from abroad.

On 17 January 1957, the Force Ouvrière, the official weekly newspaper of the General Confederation of Labour-Workers’ Force (CGT-FO), explains why it supports the establishment of Euratom in the interests of the Europe of the Six and of France.

On 26 November 1955, Walter Hallstein, State Secretary in the Foreign Ministry of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), drafts a confidential note on the state of the multilateral and bilateral negotiations concerning research into and use of atomic energy for civilian purposes.

On 9 November 1955, the German weekly magazine Der Speigel reviews the reaction of the Christian-Democratic Party (CDU) of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) to the proposed European Atomic Community.

On 15 December 1955, the German weekly newspaper Die Zeit comments on the US Department of State’s positive attitude towards the proposed European Atomic Energy Community.

On 3 December 1955, the German daily newspaper Die Welt outlines the importance and the implications of European political cooperation for the establishment of a European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom).

On 7 January 1956, the French daily newspaper Combat gives an account of the efforts made by the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) to catch up in the area of nuclear energy.

On 12 January 1956, the German weekly newspaper Die Zeit emphasises the economic potential of the nuclear industry and warns against the establishment of a supranational nuclear authority in Europe unless the countries involved are genuinely prepared to cooperate.

On 11 February 1956, the daily newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung publishes an article in which the German physicist Manfred Siebker sets out the stance adopted by the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) on the implications of nuclear power and the proposed Euratom Community.

In June 1956, Franz Joseph Strauß, Minister for Atomic Questions in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), reviews the state of the FRG’s European and international cooperation on the peaceful use of nuclear energy.

On 1 October 1956, the Minister for Nuclear Energy of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), Franz Joseph Strauß, sends a note to the German Foreign Minister, Heinrich von Brentano, regarding the intergovernmental negotiations on the pooling of atomic energy in Europe due to take place in Paris on 8 and 9 October 1956.

On 26 January 1957, the German economic newspaper Der Volkswirt warns its readers of the risks posed by Euratom to German economic circles.

‘A tonic: iron/coal/atom — … time for another nuclear pill!’ On 17 January 1956, in the German weekly magazine Rheinischer Merkur, the cartoonist Party depicts the benefits of nuclear energy for the recuperation of a sick and weakened Europe.

On 23 March 1956, Ludwig Rosenberg, a Member of the Executive Committee of the German Federation of Trade Unions (DGB), publishes an article in the weekly trade union publication Welt der Arbeit on the new implications of nuclear energy.

On 20 October 1956, the German economic newspaper Der Volkswirt comments on the draft law on the production and use of nuclear energy, aimed at establishing the conditions required to enable the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) to catch up in that field at international level.

At the conference held from 25 to 28 March 1987 in Rome to mark the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Treaties establishing the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom), Hans von der Groeben, former Head of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) Subdivision in the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs (1952–1958) and former Spokesman of the German Government at the Coordination Committee of the ECSC Special Council of Ministers, outlines the position taken by political and industrial circles in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) on the Euratom plan.

On 7 March 1954, the Italian daily newspaper 24 ore comments on the American President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s proposal to establish an atomic bank open to all nations that wish to carry out research into the peaceful use of nuclear energy.

On 15 October 1955, the Italian daily newspaper Il Sole analyses the importance of the use of nuclear energy for civil purposes and sets out the proposals for this new source of energy.

Le 23 mars 1957, le bimestriel italien Relazioni internazionali publie un article de Francesco M. Dominedò, membre italien de l'Assemblée commune de la Communauté européenne du charbon et de l'acier (CECA) et député du Parti de la Démocratie chrétienne, qui souligne l'importance de l'énergie nucléaire pour l'Europe occidentale et en particulier pour l'Italie.

In February 1956, the Socialist Movement for the United States of Europe (SMUSE) expresses the determination of the workers and Socialist unions of the six Member States of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) to support Euratom.

In 1956, the European Movement publishes a brochure on the issues and debates surrounding the peaceful use of nuclear energy for the countries of Western Europe.

From 27 to 29 April 1956, with the help of the Socialist Movement for the United States of Europe (SMUSE), the European Congress of Labour — attended by Paul-Henri Spaak, Sicco Mansholt, Guy Mollet and Jean Monnet — holds a meeting in Paris, at the end of which it adopts a resolution on the objectives of Euratom and the conditions for its establishment.

On 15 and 16 November 1956, in Brussels, the European Trade Union Committee for Atomic Energy adopts a resolution in which it emphasises the importance of rapidly developing the use of nuclear power for peaceful purposes and the involvement of the trade unions in the future institutions of the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom).

On 30 January 1957, the free trade unions of the European Community outline to the ministers of the future European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom) their fears and expectations concerning the draft treaty establishing Euratom.

In 1957, the European Centre of Culture, supported by the European Movement, publishes a pamphlet which praises the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom).

At the conference held from 25 to 28 March 1987 in Rome to mark the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Treaties establishing the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom), Pierre Uri, former Head of the Economic Affairs Division of the High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), outlines the geopolitical context of the Euratom plan and recalls the fears of Jean Monnet with regard to the possible interference between the negotiations on the Common Market and the Atomic Community.