European Council agrees on R&D spending increase and calls for action in information society and education
Heads of State and Government from each of the European Union's 15 Member States agreed to boost R&D (research and development) and innovation in the EU by increasing expenditure in this area, aiming to approach three per cent of GDP by 2010, when they met in Barcelona on 15 and 16 March. In addition to recommendations in the area of R&D, Europe's leaders also agreed on action in the areas of communication, where the use of broadband should be promoted and barriers to new services in the information society should be removed, and education, where the European Council agreed that education in the EU should become a 'world quality reference by 2010'. The Council agreed on the three per cent target for R&D spending in an attempt to close the gap between the EU and its major competitors, state the Presidency conclusions. Leaders agreed that 'there must be a significant boost of the overall R&D and innovation effort in the Union, with a particular emphasis on frontier technologies.' Two thirds of the new investment in R&D should come from the private sector, the Council agreed. The European Council called again on the Council and the Parliament to adopt the Sixth Framework programme (FP6) and its legal instruments by June 2002, and asked the Council to reach a common political approach to the Community patent at its meeting in May. 'The Community patent must be an efficient and flexible instrument obtainable by business at an affordable cost, while complying with the principles of legal certainty and non-discrimination between Member States and ensuring a high level of quality,' state the Presidency conclusions. On biotechnology, the leaders asked the Council to examine the Commission's communication on the subject before June 2002 It also requested the development of measures and a timetable which would enable Community businesses to exploit the potential of biotechnology while taking due account of the precautionary principle and meeting ethical and social concerns. The Commission is to report on progress before the 2003 spring European Council. The Council asked Member States to ensure full implementation of the new communications regulatory package by May 2003 and called for the Directive on data protection to be adopted rapidly. Leaders also noted that further progress is needed, and stressed the importance of widespread availability and use of broadband networks throughout the EU by 2005 as well as the development of Internet protocol IPv6. The Council also called on the Commission to draw up an eEurope 2005 action plan, to be presented in advance of the Seville European Council in June, which should focus on the availability of broadband, IPv6, security of networks and information, eGovernment, eLearning, eHealth and eBusiness. Believing that digital television and third generation mobile communications (3G) will play a key role in providing widespread access to interactive services, the Council called on the Commission and Member States to 'foster the use of open platforms to provide freedom of choice to citizens for access to applications and services of the information society,' and to 'sustain their efforts towards the introduction of 3G mobile communications.' It was also agreed that the Commission should present a comprehensive analysis of remaining barriers to widespread access to new services at the Seville European Council. Leaders called on the Member States to ensure that, by the end of 2003, one in every 15 pupils is connected to the Internet. More generally, the European Council stated the objective of making its educative and training systems a world quality reference by 2010, agreeing that the three basic principles behind this objective are improved quality, facilitation of universal access and opening up to the wider world. Further action is required to ensure the transparency of diplomas and qualifications, according to the Council, and legal conditions should be put into place in order to ensure genuine mobility for those involved in research, innovation and education. Finally, Europe's leaders would like to see digital literacy promoted through the introduction of an Internet and computer user's certificate for secondary school pupils, and called on the Commission to undertake a feasibility study to identify options for helping secondary schools to establish or enhance an Internet twinning link with a partner school elsewhere in Europe.
Countries
Spain