Brussels, 18/02/2013 (Agence Europe) - The meeting of the European Research Ministers, which took place in Brussels on Monday 18 February, was somewhat overshadowed by the latest European Summit, but already had one eye to the next European Council. On the one hand, the ministers are now fully aware that their “Horizon 2020” framework programme will not be spared by the cuts (around €71 billion instead of the €80 billion the European Commission hoped for). But on the other hand, they had to start preparatory work for their contribution to the European Summit of 14 and 15 March, featuring a key debate on the annual examination of growth, 2013 version.
The European ministers meeting in Brussels hardly touched upon budgetary issues, because their discussions focused most of all on the future, with the central point of the contribution of research and innovation to the strategy EUROPE 2020. This debate was marked by relatively aligned positions. Only Spain stood out from the crowd, by calling for the reinforcement of the actions of the European Investment Bank in favour of research and innovation projects. The usual points, such as public-private partnerships, joint initiatives, clusters and high-tech start-ups, were mentioned for the purpose of stressing the kind of actions which should be supported in Europe.
This formal Council did not unfold entirely as planned. The European Commission was supposed to present at least the outlines of its innovation indicator for the whole of the EU and its member states. The purpose of this indicator was to help to create a table of the research and innovation situation for each country and region, to feed into the economic governance of the 'European semester'. Work on this single indicator proved trickier than anticipated, Commissioner Maire Geoghegan-Quinn admitted at the end of the Council, but no new deadline for its presentation was specified. (JK/transl.fl)