MEPs vote to raise Fifth Framework Programme budget
Difficult negotiations between MEPs and European Research Ministers are in the offing after the European Parliament's Research Committee voted on 3 June to restore the budget for the upcoming Fifth Framework Programme to ECU 16,300 million, the figure first proposed by the Commission. If confirmed by the full Parliament on 17 June, conciliation negotiations between MEPs and Ministers, likely to be launched after the summer, would be needed to bridge the gap between Parliament's and Council's positions. As expected, the Ministers' agreement on a budget of only ECU 14,000 million over the five years of the Programme, reached at the February Research Council, was rejected by MEPs, with the Parliament receiving strong support in this from the Commission. With few differences between the three institutions on the scientific content and objectives of the Programme, discussions since February have focused on the budget. Parliament and the Commission have worked since then to ensure a united front on the budget question, so that EU research funding is not effectively reduced below current levels. Aside from the budget debate, the Committee also voted to add a further Key Action, which would investigate social changes resulting from the introduction of new information and communications technologies. Small companies received support from MEPs who called for measures to encourage the real and effective participation of SMEs in the Programme. To monitor the impact of such measures, the Commission should provide an annual report on their implementation. The Committee was also concerned that companies with between 250 and 500 employees - slightly larger than the commonly-used definition of an SME - should benefit from the Programme, seeing these as the smaller companies most likely to conduct research in-house. The Research Committee's second reading report will now be discussed by the full Parliament on 16 and 17 June. If the 35 amendments to the Council's common position are confirmed, the Council will then have three months to consider these. Unless it accepts them all, the conciliation committee would need to be convened, giving MEPs and the Council just six weeks to reach a compromise on the budget. However, with this latest stage in the legislative process now achieved, the Decision on the Programme is still on course to be adopted for the end of 1998.