Brussels, 26/11/2004 (Agence Europe) - It was just a formality, and in the words of Dutch Minister for Education and Science, Maria van der Hoeven, it was by approaching it as such that the Council approved the new negotiation mandate on ITER, to seek a six-partner solution on the basis of a "privileged partnership" extended to Japan.
However, the Council spent around three hours on its first discussions with the new Commissioner for Research, Janez Potocnik, who, according to various observers, brought a breath of fresh air to a compilation of ideas containing little novelty. Almost all of the ministers spoke, some of them flagging up their regard for such and such an instrument, others the importance of SMEs or marine research. This subject was, as always, hotly defended by the Portuguese Secretary of State Pedro Sampaio Nunez. Finland, which was represented by two ministers, stressed the importance of the cross-border aspect of research projects. According to the Finnish delegation, this criterion should also apply to a future European Research Council, which, the Portuguese Secretary of State insisted, should not be seen as the only solution to support basic research. The Italian minister for Research, Letizia Moratti, explained that her country did not wish to commit to the European Research Council without any concrete proposals. The Polish Minister for Science, Michal Kleiber, who failed to grasp that the very essence of the framework programme consists in equal access for all, stressed that the conclusions should refer to the equal participation of all Member States in the research infrastructures to be pooled at European level. These Italian and Polish positions prevented the adoption on conclusions by the Council. The Dutch Presidency therefore had to appropriate the conclusions prepared by the Committee of Permanent Representatives (see EUROPE of 26 November, p.14). Presenting these conclusions to the press, Maria van der Hoeven emphasised the need to make the future framework programme "more user-friendly", and Commissioner Potocnik took pains to stress his willingness to "rationalise and simplify" the programme, taking account of the recommendations of the Marimon report. Scientific excellence should be "the only leading principle" of the framework programme, said Janez Potocnik, thus implicitly opposing the many criteria various Member States seem to wish to impose on the future European Research Council and other instruments of the 7th EFRP.