Brussels, 12/04/2005 (Agence Europe) - One week ahead of the meeting of the European research ministers at the Competitiveness Council of 18 April, Europeans and Japanese have decided to speed up their negotiations to reach an agreement on a site for the experimental nuclear fusion reactor, ITER, before the G8 Summit in July. “We have agreed to speed up talks on the role of the host and non-host countries and will try to arrive at an international agreement by July 2005 to the satisfaction of the six parties [EU, Japan, China, South Korea, United States and Russia] on the issue of the ITER site”, said European Commissioner for Research, Janez Potocnik, in a press release after a meeting on Monday with the Japanese minister for science and technology, Nariaki Nakayama, as part of his trip to Tokyo from 11 to 13 April to try to break the deadlock on negotiations between Europe and Japan on the ITER site. On 25 March, Tokyo said that it had no plans to withdraw the candidacy of Rokkasho-Mura, supported by Washington and Seoul, thus rejecting the Europeans' request for them to accept the Cadarache site put forward by France. The EU, for its part, has said that if no agreement can be reached with the Japanese, it would start building the reactor in Cadarache before the end of the year. According to Mr Potocnik, “Japan and the EU are moving towards an understanding which can be approved by all of the parties involved in the project”. Confirming that Mr Potocnik had asked Tokyo on behalf of the Europeans to “speed up discussions”, Mr Nakayama stressed the need to “arrive at a political resolution on the plan”.
On Tuesday, Mr Potocnik also met the Japanese minister for culture and education, Yasufumi Tanahashi, with whom he discussed various aspects of the Japanese-European partnership in the field of science and technology. Mr Potocnik and Mr Tanahashi agreed in theory to hold meetings between European and Japanese experts to exchange information on their respective research and development programmes (3rd Basic Plan for Tokyo and 7th framework programme in Brussels) and look into possibilities of increasing the involvement of researchers and the industry in Europe and Japan alike in research and exchange projects. Mr Potocnik raised the issue of setting up a high-level group for science and technology to strengthen the partnership between the EU and Japan in this area, and said that he would return to Japan in September to take part in the Forum on Science and Technology. Lastly, he stressed that both sides were now very close to agreement on a joint text laying the foundation stones for a partnership agreement in the field of science and technology.