On 19 February 2019, the Agreement on UK withdrawl from the European Union and from the European Atomic Energy Community was published on the Official Journal of the European Union(OJ C 66 I/1 of 19/02/19).
The Agreement, together with its Protocols, sets out the arrangements for the withdrawal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the Union and the Euratom.
Title IX of the Agreement (Articles 79 to 85) deals with Euratom related issues.
Article 80 specifies that the United Kingdom will have sole responsibility for ensuring that all ores,source materials and special fissile materials covered by the Euratom Treaty and present on the territory of the United Kingdom at the end of the transition period are handled in accordance with relevant and applicable international treaties and conventions.
The same exclusive responsibility of the UK applies for ensuring its compliance with international obligations arising as a consequence of its membership of the International Atomic Energy Agency or as a consequence of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons or any other relevant international treaties or conventions to which the United Kingdom is a party.
Article 81 specifies that UK will have to implement a safeguards regime, which will offer equivalent effectiveness and coverage as that provided by the Community in the territory of the United Kingdom in line with the Agreement between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the European Atomic Energy Community and the International Atomic Energy Agency for the Application of Safeguards in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Connection with the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons [INFCIRC/263], as amended.
Finally, special fissile materials present on the territory of the United Kingdom will cease to be the property of the Community at the end of the transition period, as well as the categories of community equipment and other property related to the provision of safeguards located in the UK and defined in Annex V.
Following the Agreement, at the end of the transition period, the European Commission will transmit to the United Kingdom the final inventory of Euratom equipment and other property transferred and the United Kingdom will reimburse to the Union the value of that equipment.Article 148 of the Agreements fixes the dates for payments by the UK to the Union after 2020.[1]
[1]The Agreement shall enter into force on 30 March 2019. In the event that, prior to that date, the depositary of this Agreement has not received the written notification of the completion of the necessary internal procedures by the Union and the United Kingdom, the Agreement shall not enter into force. (For details, please see article 185 of the Agreement).