Brussels, 29/04/2002 (Agence Europe) - The Committee on Industry has substantially amended the draft report by Gérard Caudron (PES, France) with a view to second reading on the 6th Framework Programme for Research and Development (FPRD). Although some of the changes could bring into question the search for a compromise between the Council and the European Commission, allowing conciliation procedure to be avoided, the rapporteur still hopes the timetable may be kept to so that the FPRD may be adopted before the end of the first term. The second reading will take place at the plenary session in Strasbourg, in May. In the meantime, negotiations will be held with the two other institutions during a trilogue scheduled for 7 May. Forty-eight amendments voted in one go by the industry committee may not be submitted to the plenary if the Council and the Commission agree to take them up in specific programmes on which the Parliament is not consulted, but will be the object of five other reports not yet adopted in parliamentary committee.
After the vote in committee, the report by Mr Caudron comprises 88 amendments instead of the fifty initially proposed by the rapporteur (see EUROPE of 13 April, p.13). In addition to the reintroduction of the staircase of excellence whose principles, if not the form, should be acceptable to the other institutions when it contributes to the gradual introduction of new instruments, the parliamentary committee hoped to take on board the provision for an ethnic framework to research that the Parliament had adopted at first reading but which had not been included by the Council in its common position. The amendment will no doubt be one of the most difficult to negotiate in so far as it opens a debate that the Council had closed with some difficulty. Other amendments mainly aim at insisting on the priorities that the Parliament had already approved at first reading such as: - research on the sun, the climate and geology; - health risks at work; - the intermodality and interoperability of transport; - energy efficiency; - renewable energy sources; - fossil fuels; - protection of the genetic heritage and biodiversity; - seismic research; - volcanoes; - preserving cultural heritage; - and the needs of the disabled.
Although the industry committee did not touch the overall budget of the framework programme, it does propose small changes in the way funding is broken down (amounts retained by the Council are in brackets): (1) integrating research: EUR 13.6 billion (13.285) including (a) 11.570 billion (11.205) for following thematic priorities (15% must be devoted to SMEs, as set out in the common position): health and safety: 2.3 billion (2.2) shared between genome science and biotechnology up to 1.1 billion (1.150)and the major diseases up to 1.2 billion (1.050) including EUR 400 million for cancer and 400 million for AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria (the Council had not adopted this degree of precision); - information society: 3.9 billion (3.6) but the industry committee calls for 350 million to be devoted to developing the GEANT and GRID networks (the Council had envisaged around 300 million but under different headings); - nanotechnologies and intelligent materials: 1.3 billion without change; - aeronautics and space: 1.075 without change; - food quality and safety: 650 million §685); - energy, transport and sustainable development: 2.120 without change; - citizens, democracy and institutions: 225 million, without change; (b) 1.270 billion (1.320) for anticipating scientific needs; - support and anticipation: 470 million (570); - SME: 400 million (450); - international cooperation: 400 million (300); (c) 760 million (without change) for the Joint Research Centre; (2) structuring the European Research Area: 2.350 billion (2.655) including: research and innovation: 250 million (300); - human resources: 1.6 billion (1.630); - research infrastructures: 400 million (665); - science and society: 100 million (60); - strengthening the base for the European Research Area: 320 million (330); - coordination of activities: 270 million (280); - coherent development of policies: 50 million, without change.