Parliamentary Agenda of 26-30 October 1992
The Agenda of the European Parliament for the Session of 26-30 October 1992 includes a number of RTD-related subjects: - First reading of the Commission's proposal for a system of common copyright rules for satellite broadcasting and transmission by cable television. - First reading of the Commission's reexamined proposal on the legal protection of biotechnology inventions: This reading was postponed in June 1992 to permit the legal services of the Parliament and the Commission time to ensure the proposal was compatible with the bio-diversity treaty on safeguarding the world's plant and animal life, signed at the Rio Earth Summit in the same month. - A report from the Parliament's Environment Committee on the Commission's proposal to amend a 1991 regulation with a view to speeding up the elimination of CFCs and other substances responsible for depleting the ozone layer. - Presentation by the Council of the draft budget for 1993: After examination by the Ministers, the overall budget put forward in the Commission's original preliminary draft has been reduced by some ECU 3.5 billion. Areas cut back include the "Cohesion Fund" (figures are to be decided under this heading at a later date in the event of an agreement on the Delors II package at the Edinburgh Summit in December). Also cut is an ECU 400 million reserve in research spending, and ECU 200 million in internal policies including education and training, HDTV, trans-European networks and environment. Information and aid budgets have been considerably reduced.