Parliament calls for European coal and steel research foundation
The European Parliament adopted a resolution on 1 October on the technical guidelines of the future of coal and steel research following the end of the ECSC (European Community steel and coal) treaty in July 2002. Research in this area will be conducted under the auspices of the European Communities following the end of the treaty. The research will be carried out in a manner complementary to, but outside of, the European Union's existing framework programmes. The Parliament suggested that research in these areas be carried out by a research foundation and that the proposal contains a clause allowing this foundation to open up to other areas of research. It also requested that the Commission, in collaboration with the Parliament, establish a group of experts which could draw up proposals for a European research foundation. The budget proposed by the Commission would be divided with just under 73 per cent going to steel and just over 27 per cent going to coal research. Parliament also suggested that codecision with the Council be used. Meanwhile European Commissioner Busquin and Russian Minister Rumyantsev signed two agreements on 3 October on nuclear safety and nuclear fusion, which were initialled in May shortly after the Moscow Summit. Commissioner Busquin has also agreed with his Russian counterpart, Minister Rumyantsev, to draw up a list of priority areas for research cooperation and an action plan, to bring more strategic focus into the existing cooperation. In addition, a memorandum on space cooperation was agreed with the Russian and European Space Agencies.