ITER Organization-Host State relationship
The ITER Agreement identifies Euratom as the ITER Host Party and France as the ITER Host State (Article 1).
Because France is not directly a Party to the ITER Agreement, a specific Headquarters Agreement was signed between the Government of the French Republic and the ITER Organization in November 2007, as provided by Article 12.7 of the ITER Agreement.
Headquarters Agreement
The signature of the Headquarters Agreement and its Annex grants privileges and immunities to the ITER Organization within French territory and introduces these privileges and immunities into French law.
Signed in November 2007, the Headquarters Agreement entered into force in April 2008 after its approval by the French Parliament and its publication in the Official Journal of the French Republic (click to consult the law and the decree in French).
The Headquarters Agreement foresees the possibility for the Parties to sign additional protocols to this Agreement—in particular in order to cooperate to carry out on-site inspections—notwithstanding the inviolability of the ITER site, its buildings, premises and its immunity of jurisdiction.
Additional Protocols
A additional protocol was approved by the French Parliament the 16 April 2010 relative to on-site labour inspections (the law can be consulted in French here) and published on 23 July 2010 in the Official Journal of French Republic.
An additional protocol was signed and published by decree on 17 September 2008 for protection against the dissemination of French classified information provided to the ITER Organization.
Agreement on Social Security
The ITER Organization and the French Government have signed an agreement that enables ITER Organization staff members to have the possibility of participating in voluntary pension insurance, part of the French social security scheme.
The agreement was formalized by an exchange of letters in 2011 and approved by law on 4 July 2013. The agreement was then published to the Official Journal of the French Republic by decree.
Annex on Site Support
Article 11 of the ITER Agreement provides that the Host Party shall make available to the ITER Organization, or cause to be made available, the site support required for the implementation of the ITER Project as summarized under the terms outlined in the Annex on Site Support and that it may designate an entity to act on its behalf for this purpose.
The Annex on Site Support forms an integral part of the ITER Agreement (pursuant to Article 27) and establishes the site support to be provided by the Host Party. It further establishes that the details of such site support—as well as the procedures for cooperation—should be covered by a specific Site Support Agreement between the ITER Organization and the Host Party Euratom, or its designated entity.
At the first ITER Interim Council meeting in Paris on 21 November 2006, the European Commission designated the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) as the entity to act on its behalf in making available the site support for ITER. An autonomous agency (Agence ITER France) was created within the CEA in order to implement some of the commitments made by France in view of setting up the ITER Project on its territory (see the French decree here).