Ministers make progress on Fifth Framework Programme discussions

Discussions on the various elements which will make up the forthcoming Fifth RTD Framework Programme were again the focus of the Research Council meeting in Luxembourg on 22 June 1998. With a whole range of Decisions to be taken before the end of 1998 in order for the Programm...

Discussions on the various elements which will make up the forthcoming Fifth RTD Framework Programme were again the focus of the Research Council meeting in Luxembourg on 22 June 1998. With a whole range of Decisions to be taken before the end of 1998 in order for the Programme to be launched on schedule, the EU's Research Ministers were able to make substantial progress in a number of areas, which should help keep to the timetable.

As the European Parliament only completed its second reading of the overall Framework Programme proposal the week before the Council meeting, this was not formally discussed. The main points on the agenda were the proposals for the instruments which will add detail to the Framework Programme: the rules for participation and dissemination of research results, and the individual specific programmes.

The rules for participation will set out uniform conditions for companies and organizations wishing to participate in the Framework Programme, with each specific programme in the different research fields governed by the same rules. In respect of the dissemination of the research results generated by EU-funded projects, the rules lay down the conditions for exploitation and the intellectual property rights attached to these results - a major consideration for projects involving partners from several different countries. The Council adopted a common position on these rules, which will now be transmitted to the European Parliament for its second reading.

The Commission adopted proposals for a total of ten specific programmes in May 1998. These correspond to the four thematic programmes and three horizontal programmes within the Fifth Framework Programme, plus two for direct actions conducted by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) and one for nuclear energy research. Decisions on these cannot formally be adopted until the European Parliament has given its opinion on the proposals and the overall Framework Programme Decision has been adopted. That said, Ministers were able to reach consensus on the provisions common to all the programmes, and on three of the ten proposals: User-friendly Information Society, Nuclear Energy Research, and Innovation and SMEs. The progress made at this Council meeting will help to ensure that all the Decisions necessary for the Fifth Framework Programme can be adopted before the end of 1998.

Ministers also discussed aspects of the management of the programmes, calling on the Commission to reduce the administrative costs of the Programme to a proportion of the total budget below that seen in the Fourth Framework Programme. Following up on the April colloquium at which Ministers had discussed the Programme's management in depth, the Council adopted conclusions welcoming the Commission's efforts to improve the management of EU research programmes, and its intentions to build on these efforts. The Council endorsed the plans put forward by the Commission in this respect, in particular in respect of establishing external advisory bodies, increasing transparency, speeding up procedures, and improving the effectiveness of evaluations of the Programme's effectiveness.

Other subjects addressed by the Council included:

- A Resolution on cooperation between the EU and the European Space Agency, to enhance European work in the space field;
- A Decision concerning the extension of the ITER (international thermonuclear reactor) agreement between the EU, USA, Japan and Russia for a further three years (until July 2001). This is in line with the Fifth Framework Programme proposals on nuclear fusion research;
- Authorisation for the Commission to negotiate with China towards a science and technology cooperation agreement to enable joint research in fields covered by the Fifth Framework Programme;
- Authorisation for the Commission to negotiate an extension of the existing cooperation agreement with Canada, so that it would cover all the fields under the Fifth Framework Programme.