On 8 February 1957, the US State Department, the US Commission for Atomic Energy and the Committee of Three Wise Men on atomic energy in Europe publish a joint communiqué in which they undertake to cooperate together to construct nuclear power stations in Europe.

On 9 February 1957, the Action Committee for a United States of Europe publishes a memorandum on the activities of the Committee of the Three Wise Men reponsible for drawing up a list of Europe’s nuclear energy requirements and resources.

On 4 May 1957, the Three Wise Men (Franz Etzel from Germany, Louis Armand from France and Francesco Giordani from Italy) submit to the Six their report on the objectives of the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom).

On 1 March 1957, the Committee of the Three Wise Men and the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority publish a joint press release on future cooperation between the six Member States of Euratom and Great Britain in the field of nuclear energy.

On 4 May 1957, in the annex of their report on the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom), Louis Armand, Franz Etzel and Francesco Giordiani include a letter to the Foreign Ministers of the six Member States of Euratom in which they outline the work involved in drawing up the report.

On 4 May 1957, the Committee of Three Wise Men (Louis Armand from France, Franz Etzel from Germany and Francesco Giordani from Italy) submits its report entitled ‘A target for Euratom’, which reviews Europe’s needs and its resources in the field of nuclear energy, to the governments of the six Member States of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC).

Louis Armand, the first President of the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom) from 1958 to 1959 and a Member, from 1956 to 1957, of the Committee of Three Wise Men on atomic energy in Europe.

Drawing a political and economic lesson from the Suez Crisis and the problems of the oil shortage which it caused as from late 1956, the Six decide to create Euratom which seeks to make nuclear power a cheap and abundant source of energy.

On 31 July 1957, commenting on the report of the ‘Three Wise Men’, the German daily newspaper Deutsche Zeitung focuses on the attitude of the European countries to the use of nuclear power as a source of energy.

In November 1957, Max Kohnstamm, former Secretary-General of the Committee of the Three Wise Men and Secretary-General of the Action Committee for a United States of Europe, reports on the visit that he paid to the United States in order to sound out the possibility of nuclear cooperation between the US and Euratom.

In December 1957, in reaction to the publication of the report by the Three Wise Men focusing on the problems surrounding Euratom, the International Federation of Self-Generating Industrial Users of Electricity (FIPACE) reflects on present and future European policies.

In 1957, inspired by the creation of the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom), Francis Perrin, French High Commissioner for Atomic Energy, extols the apparent virtues of the industrial and domestic use of the atom.

On 23 June 1958, in Strasbourg, Louis Armand, President of the Commission of the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom), provides the European Parliamentary Assembly (EPA) with an overview of Euratom’s general objectives, emphasising the importance of the peaceful use of atomic energy.

Franz Etzel, former Vice-President of the High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and Member of the Committee of Three Wise Men which, in May 1957, published its report entitled ‘A target for Euratom’.

Map showing the location of nuclear power stations in the six Member States of the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC) in 1960.

In April 1962, the monthly publication Communauté européenne focuses on the thermonuclear applications of atomic fission and fusion in Europe.

In this interview, Max Kohnstamm, former Secretary of the Committee of the Three Wise Men, responsible in November 1956 for compiling a report on nuclear energy in Europe, outlines the working methods of the Committee and the implications of the establishment of Euratom in the mid-1950s.