Brussels, 25/06/2001 (Agence Europe) - The Commission has adopted a communication on the international dimension of the European Research Area (ERA). The document sets out the main guidelines for a new scientific cooperation and international technology policy that meets the strategic aims for opening the ERA up to the world.
The main directions of this strategy should be to: - make the ERA more attractive for the best scientists; - allow researchers and European industrials to have access to knowledge and to technologies produced elsewhere in the world as well as to fields of experimentation needed for European research; - develop scientific and technical activities useful for the implementation of EU external policies and development aid; - mobilise the Union's scientific and technological capacities, as well as those of third countries, for initiatives corresponding to the problems of global dimension, which are important for the Community such as food safety, environmental safety (greenhouse gases, desertification, biodiversity, seismic risks …) or health safety, health and the main diseases linked to poverty. The communication also urges for an increased effort to coordinate EU and Member State action and stresses the need for rapid integration of candidate countries. The text, which indicates the priorities for cooperation with the different regions of the world, recalls that the United States devotes over EUR 3.5 billion annually to international technical and scientific cooperation while total funding allocated by the EU and its Member States does not exceed 1 billion.