Competitiveness Council adopts common position on FP7
The European Council adopted a common position on the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) at a Competitiveness Council meeting, held on 25 September in Brussels. Agreement on FP7 should now be reached under the co-decision procedure, assuming the European Parliament responds positively in its second reading. The political decision was made on 24 July during the previous Competitiveness Council, also held in Brussels. In the July meeting, all but the Austrian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish and Slovak delegations voted in favour, carrying FP7 through by a substantial qualified majority. The political agreement came thanks to intervention by the Presidency, where rules for stem cell research were clarified, to the satisfaction of most delegations. FP7 has been drawn up to give priority to four specific areas: - Cooperation - collaborative research; - Ideas - including the establishment of the European Research Council (ERC); - People - human resources; - Capacities. FP7 is expected to be easier to negotiate for participants, offer more opportunities for research and researchers, and bring science and society closer. FP7, including Euratom, has a budget of €50.4 billion.