The Contracting Parties to the Paris Convention on Third Party Liability in the Field of Nuclear Energy met on 22 June 2020 to discuss the interpretation and implementation of this Convention and the Brussels Convention Supplementary to the Paris Convention. They also continued to prepare for the entry into force of the 2004 Protocols to amend both conventions.
The Contracting Parties have not been able to ratify the 2004 Protocol to amend the Paris Convention due to a decision of the Council of the European Union (EU) that requires EU Member States which are Contracting Parties to the Paris Convention (except Denmark and Slovenia) to deposit their instruments of ratification simultaneously (2004/294/EC). The last EU Member State that needs to finalise its national legislative process in view of the ratification is Italy, which has made some progress recently: the Italian Senate has resumed its work and the 2004 Protocols ratification and implementation bill has been approved on 26 May 2020 by the two Standing Committees that were examining it (see here for information in Italian only), The bill (available here in Italian only) will now be referred to the Senate in plenary for discussion and final vote and the final phase will be defined in due course. Information on the legislative process is available here in English.
In addition, the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey approved the bill for the ratification and implementation of the 2004 Protocol at its 21st meeting on 11 March 2020 and submitted its report on the approved bill to the Office of the Speaker on 8 April 2020. The bill is expected to be submitted for adoption to the Plenary of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, but no date is anticipated. The bill is available here in Turkish, and information in English on the process to approve the ratification of international treaties by the Grand National Assembly of Turkey is available here.
The Contracting Parties have not been able to ratify the 2004 Protocol to amend the Paris Convention due to a decision of the Council of the European Union (EU) that requires EU Member States which are Contracting Parties to the Paris Convention (except Denmark and Slovenia) to deposit their instruments of ratification simultaneously (2004/294/EC). The last EU Member State that needs to finalise its national legislative process in view of the ratification is Italy, which has made some progress recently: the Italian Senate has resumed its work and the 2004 Protocols ratification and implementation bill has been approved on 26 May 2020 by the two Standing Committees that were examining it (see here for information in Italian only), The bill (available here in Italian only) will now be referred to the Senate in plenary for discussion and final vote and the final phase will be defined in due course. Information on the legislative process is available here in English.
In addition, the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey approved the bill for the ratification and implementation of the 2004 Protocol at its 21st meeting on 11 March 2020 and submitted its report on the approved bill to the Office of the Speaker on 8 April 2020. The bill is expected to be submitted for adoption to the Plenary of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, but no date is anticipated. The bill is available here in Turkish, and information in English on the process to approve the ratification of international treaties by the Grand National Assembly of Turkey is available here.
