Abstract
Sixty years ago, on 1 January 1958, the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community of 1957 entered into force. Due to the fact, nuclear industry was in its infancy at the time the Treaty was, several clauses enabling prospective amendments and adjustments were laid down in its provisions.
Consequently, the legal framework of the Treaty was intended to be provisional to large extent and intended to duly reflect the future developments of the new born industry. However, in contrast to the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community of 1951, the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community of 1957 did not provided for any explicit limitation of the Community's existence in its provisions.
As a consequence, the key provisions of the Treaty, establishing Community's powers and competencies remained virtually untouched until today. The 60th anniversary of the Treaty represents opportunity to analyse the characteristic features of the Treaty, which was originally signed as to large extent provisional, gradually became static and appeared to be quite flexible in the course of the later developments.