Brussels, 17/10/2002 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has adopted a communication on "Providing new momentum for the European Research Area", which suggests that the mechanisms for coordinating national research policies should be strengthened and made more efficient.
In its communication, the Commission proposes to: (1) define a formal coordination mechanism which could be based on annual national reports like the mechanism used in the economic and employment fields; (2) set in place a structure able to ensure such coordination where national administrations would be represented at the highest level; and (3) resort to an open coordination method in a more complete form, by not doing away with the first two stages, the determination of common objectives and their translation into specific objectives for each country. This should be accompanied by a special effort to help candidate countries integrate into the European Research Area. Furthermore, the Commission proposes strengthening action under way with, for example, the presentation of measures aimed at facilitating the entry and stay of third country researchers in Europe, as well as recommendations on the subject of how research careers may unfold.
During the presentation of this communication, Commissioner Philippe Busquin said: "Thirty months after it was launched, the European Research Area initiative can be said to have reshaped the European Research policy landscape. The national research organisations are starting to define their activities in relation to it, and it has given rise to concrete achievements. However, the initiative is suffering from the fact that the Member States are still showing insufficient commitment. The involvement of the national administrations in the various activities needs to be stimulated, and mechanisms should be put in place to help improve the coordination of national research policies".