Consolidated version of the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community 2016/C 203/01

Article 24 U.K.

Information which the Community acquires as a result of carrying out its research programme, and the disclosure of which is liable to harm the defence interests of one or more Member States, shall be subject to a security system in accordance with the following provisions.

1.

The Council shall, acting on a proposal from the Commission, adopt security regulations which, account being taken of the provisions of this Article, lay down the various security gradings to be applied and the security measures appropriate to each grading.

2.

Where the Commission considers that the disclosure of certain information is liable to harm the defence interests of one or more Member States, it shall provisionally apply to that information the security grading required in that case by the security regulations.

It shall communicate such information forthwith to the Member States, which shall provisionally ensure its security in the same manner.

Member States shall inform the Commission within three months whether they wish to maintain the grading provisionally applied, substitute another or declassify the information.

Upon the expiry of this period, the highest grading of those requested shall be applied. The Commission shall notify the Member States accordingly.

At the request of the Commission or of a Member State, the Council may, acting unanimously, at any time apply another grading or declassify the information. The Council shall obtain the opinion of the Commission before taking any action on a request from a Member State.

3.

The provisions of Articles 12 and 13 shall not apply to information subject to a security grading.

Nevertheless, provided that the appropriate security measures are observed,

(a)

the information referred to in Articles 12 and 13 may be communicated by the Commission:

(i)

to a Joint Undertaking;

(ii)

to a person or undertaking other than a Joint Undertaking, through the Member State in whose territory that person or undertaking operates;

(b)

the information referred to in Article 13 may be communicated by a Member State to a person or to an undertaking other than a Joint Undertaking, operating in the territory of that State, provided that the Commission is notified of this communication;

(c)

each Member State has, however, the right to require the Commission to grant a licence under Article 12 to meet the needs of that State or those of a person or undertaking operating in its territory.