Zangger Committee

The Zangger Committee , also known as the Committee for Nuclear Exports , was created on the basis of Article III.2 of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty , which came into force on May 5, 1970. Because of the provisions of Article III.2, safety precautions of the International Atomic Energy Agency must be applied to nuclear exports.

Each State that is a Contracting Party undertakes to give a non-nuclear weapons state for peaceful purposes only a) source and special fissile material, or b) equipment and materials specifically intended or prepared for the processing, use or manufacture of special fissile material to be made available if the source or special fissile material is subject to the security measures required under this article.

Between 1971 and 1974 a group of 15 countries that were suppliers of nuclear materials, chaired by Swiss professor Claude Zangger, held a series of informal meetings in Vienna . Their aim was to find an understanding on (a) the definition of "equipment and materials specially designed or prepared for the processing, use or manufacture of special fissile material," and (b) the conditions and procedures governing export such equipment and materials would determine in order to meet the requirements of Article III.2 on the basis of fair economic competition. The group, which came to be known as the Zangger Committee, decided that its meetings would be informal and that its decisions would not be legally binding on its members.

The committee maintains and updates a list of equipment that may only be exported if security measures are applied to the receiving facility. The committee also allows its members to coordinate with each other on matters relating to nuclear exports. The group's relative casualness enabled them to take the lead on certain non-proliferation disputes that would be difficult to resolve within the Nuclear Suppliers Group . The People's Republic of China is also a member of the Zangger Committee.

The committee has 39 member states (as of June 30, 2014):

Argentina , Australia , Belarus , Belgium , Bulgaria , China , Denmark , Germany , Finland , France , Greece , Great Britain , Ireland , Italy , Japan , Canada , Kazakhstan , Croatia , Luxembourg , New Zealand , Netherlands , Norway , Austria , Poland , Portugal , Romania , Russia , Sweden , Switzerland , Slovakia , Slovenia , Spain , South Africa , South Korea , Czech Republic , Turkey , Ukraine , Hungary , United States

The European Commission acts as a permanent observer.

After the death of chairman Dr. Fritz W. Schmidt, the diplomatic mission of Great Britain in Vienna, acts as the secretariat and deputy seat of the committee. The Czech Pavel Klucký is the current chairman of the committee.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. (PDF; 20 kB) Federal Foreign Office, November 7, 2000, accessed on March 23, 2011 . 
2. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from February 1, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  

Web links

• Official website of the Zangger Committee (English)
• Zangger Committee Agreements (English; PDF file; 118 kB)
• German version of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty on the homepage of the German Foreign Office (PDF file; 20 kB)