Brussels, 10/11/2003 (Agence Europe) - According to the French Minister for Research, Claudie Haigneré, speaking on the sidelines of the "Competitiveness" Council, the question of representation of the European candidate site for the ITER thermonuclear fusion reactor could be put to a majority vote at the next session of the Council on 27 November. The Minister explained that that following contacts with other non-European partners of the project, it was clear that the EU "would be running a risk" by not deciding on 27, due to the attraction of other sites, like the one put forward by Japan. Acknowledging that Spain is sticking to its guns (it wants 2 European sites, the Spanish and the French ones), Ms Haigneré recalled that a vast majority of Member States are in favour of a single European application. They feel that the choice of the site "should be a European decisions", and should therefore be put to the vote, if there is no concensus by the 27th. EUROPE will come back on this.