The Statute of the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) takes the form of a Decision originally adopted by the Council of the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation on 20 December 1957 and subsequently approved by the OECD Council on 30 September 1961. At that time, the Agency's Members included European countries only, and it was called the European Nuclear Energy Agency.
In step with the Agency's growing membership, the Statute was amended by successive decisions of the Council, and the name of the Agency was changed accordingly. Finally, the Statute was modernised by several decisions of the Council, dated respectively 5 April 1978, 10 December 1992 and 13 July 1995.