Tuesday, October 24, 1995


   BRUSSELS, Oct 24 (Reuter) -- The European Commission will not take
France to the European court over its South Pacific nuclear test
programme, a Commission official told Reuters on Tuesday.
   The official said the decision taken at a meeting of the EU executive
on Monday evening would offer "no surprises."
   Commission President Jacques Santer was due to announce the outcome
of the meeting to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France at 11.30
a.m. (1030 GMT).
   The official said Monday's meeting had concluded French nuclear tests
were not "particularly dangerous experiments" under EU law and so the
Commission could shortly close its file on them.
   He explained his comment by saying:  "No surprises in the sense that
there's been a fairly strict legal line which has been taken."
   During recent weeks, the Commission has repeatedly asked Paris to
supply data on its nuclear tests to allow the executive to assess how
dangerous they are in order to decide what action, if any, it should
take.
   "All of the data which has been produced by the French over the last
weeks and months has been looked at by the Commission services concerned
and it seems that mainly speaking, the data which they have do not point
to any alarming circumstances," the official said.
   Santer imposed a news blackout on the Monday meeting's outcome until
his European Parliament speech, mindful of the elected assembly's strong
anti-nulcear line and criticism of the Commission for what some deputies
have said is inaction.
   "I think what the Commission will be keen to do is to put forward
something which will be interpreted as an additional burden on France,
something like long-term monitoring of the test site," the official
said, adding:  "Clearly there's a need for a certain amount of window
dressing."
   The executive's decision comes the day after French President Jacques
Chirac said in New York his country would probably carry out four more
nuclear weapons tests, fewer than he had initially planned.  Asked on
CNN television how many more underground tests Paris planned to conduct,
Chirac said:  "Probably four, and it will be ended next spring."