Council emphasises improved efficiency for Community RTD through greater selectivity
In answer to a written Parliamentary question of 1.9.1993 asking if the Council endorses the Commission proposals for greater selectivity in future Community RTD programmes, the Council reaffirmed its Conclusions of 29 April 1993 on the objectives of the Fourth Framework Programme, in which concentration, selectivity and the application of the subsidiarity principle are cited as means for increasing the efficiency and added value of Community RTD. The Council's reply pointed to the Conclusions of the Edinburgh meeting of 11-12 December 1992, in which the general, precompetitive and multisectoral nature of Community RTD is reaffirmed and in which greater synergy with the activities of EUREKA and improved circulation of the results to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are called for. It also considered that informal meetings and exchanges of views between the representatives of the three Institutions should help to provide the most appropriate answers to the main questions at issue, including the question of the purpose of Community research and the approach which would best serve its aims. These ideas may then be reflected in the European Parliament's Opinion and the Council's Common Position, the texts on which preparation of the final Decision adopting the Fourth Framework Programme will be based.