Brussels, 03/04/2001 (Agence Europe) - Gathered in Brussels, on 22 March, on the initiative of the EMiReC (European Mineral Resources RTD Council), a hundred experts representing the extraction industries and the connected branches of activities discussed the importance of research and technological development (RTD) in the field of mineral resources, calling in favour of the inclusion of their aims in the field in the new framework-programme for research and innovation in Europe that the Commission presented last month.
The EMiReC sets out priorities in terms of research in the field of mineral resources and steers researchers over the issues requiring special attention. During a meeting with the press organised in the framework of its first "RTD Day", on 22 March, its representatives recalled the importance of the extraction industry sector, underlining that it brings a contribution to nearly all the sectors of society through the production industries both traditional and high technology. It is thus that some 30% of the EU energy production comes from coal; in its recent Green Paper on energy supply security, the Commission underlines its importance for a Europe called upon, if present trends persist, to depend by 70% on the rest of the world to satisfy its energy needs, by around 2030. Moreover, underlines the EMiReC, Coal is of a special importance to cover the growing energy demand in the candidate countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the developing countries, which gives the Union a major responsibility, but also offers it prospects for considerable exports. This suffices to demonstrate the importance of RTD for the sector. Moreover, this has lead to significant results in terms of increasing productivity, the protection of the environment and safety, some of which have benefited other sectors (construction, remediation of contaminated sites, etc.). However, the EMiReC emphasises that the RTD efforts must be continued for the European manufacturers of mining equipment to maintain their global leadership, that the extraction industries are able to answer the demand for raw materials and the offer for coal is sufficient to answer the Green Paper's call. So many reasons that have incited these representatives to ask the European leaders for the inclusion of RTD in the sixth framework programme for research and innovation in Europe.