Brussels, 28/09/2011 (Agence Europe) - The Competitiveness Council will focus on four research dossiers at its meeting on Friday 30 September: the Euratom programme, fuel and hydrogen battery technologies, programmes on demographic evolution and the ageing population and, lastly, European innovation partnerships.
A general orientation on three legislative acts relative to the framework programme of the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) is to be approved. These acts concern draft decisions aiming to implement, via direct and indirect actions, the framework programme, one of the points of which is the regulation on third-party involvement (businesses, universities, research centres, etc) and speeding up the adoption of the final package for the research activities in the field of nuclear energy and radioprotection for the years 2012-2013. The funding of the construction of ITER will also be discussed. The second dossier is that of the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH), which have the potential to be a cleaner source of energy, notably by reducing carbon emissions. The Council is expected to confirm the political agreement to increase the funding for this initiative, which has brought together private companies, the European Commission and research bodies since 2008. This project is initially forecast to run until 2017 and aims to favour the adoption of FCH as a vital energy source in Europe. The third point on the agenda concerns the initiative of the joint Living longer and better programme, which will bring together, at European level, research activities into demographic evolution and the ageing population. The Council is expected to adopt conclusions allowing the project to be set in place. European innovation partnerships (EIP) are the final dossier to be discussed at the meeting. The Council will carry out an exchange of views on this programme, which aims to accelerate innovation to respond to society's major questions and to allow a better transmission of innovative solutions to the citizens, by means of close cooperation between the public and private sectors. EIPs are at the conceptualisation stage, but Commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, who is responsible for research, innovation and science, will present the initial results of a pilot programme launched in 2010 in the field of active and healthy ageing, which will make it possible to assess the way in which the definitive partnerships should be set in place. (JK/transl.fl)