5.12.2006 Official Journal of the European Union L 337)21 COUNCIL DIRECTIVE 2006/1 17/EURATOM of 20 November 2006 on the supervision and control of shipments of radioactive waste and spent fuel THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community, and in particular Articles 31(2) and 32 thereof, Having regard to the proposal from the Commission drawn up after obtaining the opinion of a group of persons appointed by the Scientific and Technical Committee from among scientific experts in the Member States, in accordance with Article 31 of the Treaty, and after having consulted the European Economic and Social Committee (1), Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament (3), Whereas: (1) Operations involved in shipments of radioactive waste or spent fuel are subject to a number of requirements under Community and international legal instruments regarding in particular the safe transport of radioactive material and the conditions under which radioactive waste or spent fuel is disposed of or stored in the country of destination. (2)  Further to these requirements, the health protection of workers and the general public requires that shipments of radioactive waste or spent fuel between Member States and into and out of the Community be subject to a compulsory and common system of prior authorisation. (3)  As stated in Council Resolution of 22 May 2002 on the establishment of national systems for surveillance and control of the presence of radioactive materials in the recycling of metallic materials in the Member States (?), it is important to minimise the radiological risk deriving from the presence of radioactive materials among metallic materials destined for recycling. (1) O] C 286, 17.11.2005, p. 34. (%) Opinion delivered on 5 July 2006 (not yet published in the Official Journal). () O] C 119, 22.5.2002, p. 7. (4 Council Directive 92/3/Euratom of 3 February 1992 on the supervision and control of shipments of radioactive waste between Member States and into and out of the Community (¥) established a Community system of strict control and prior authorisation for shipments of radio- active waste that has proved satisfactory. It needs, never- theless, to be amended in the light of experience in order to clarify and add concepts and definitions, to address situations that had been omitted in the past, to simplify the existing procedure for the shipment of radioactive waste between Member States and to guarantee consistency with other Community and international provisions, and in particular with the Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management (hereinafter referred to as Joint Convention), to which the Community acceded on 2 January 2006. (5)  In the framework of the Fifth Phase of the SLIM (Simpler Legislation for the Internal Market) initiative, a working group of representatives of Member States and of users was set up in order to address a number of concerns expressed by users of Directive 92/3/Euratom, while bringing it into line with current international rules and instruments. (6)  The procedure laid down in Directive 92/3/Euratom has been applied in practice only to shipments of spent fuel for which no further use is intended, considered thus as ‘radioactive waste’ for the purposes of that Directive. From a radiological point of view, excluding the appli- cation of such supervision and control procedure to spent fuel where it is intended for reprocessing is not justified. It is therefore appropriate that this Directive cover all shipments of spent fuel, whether it is intended for disposal or for reprocessing. (7)  Each Member State should remain fully responsible for the choice of its own policy on the management of the nuclear waste and spent fuel within its jurisdiction, some choosing reprocessing of spent fuel, others aiming at final disposal of spent fuel with no other use foreseen. This Directive should therefore be without prejudice to the right of Member States to export their spent fuel for reprocessing and nothing in this Directive should imply that a Member State of destination has to accept shipments of radioactive waste and spent fuel for final treatment or disposal except in the case of reshipment. Any refusal of such shipments should be justified on the basis of the criteria set out in this Directive. () O] L 35, 12.2.1992, p. 24.