Brussels, 23/08/2005 (Agence Europe) - The services of the European Commission are in the process of putting the final touches to the specific programmes which will form the content of the forthcoming framework programme of research and development (FPRD). These specific programmes are impatiently awaited by the European Parliament ahead of the first reading of the seventh FPRD, which was proposed by the Commission on 6 April. Their definitive adoption will take place not before mid-September, just before the seminar of the College of Commissioners, which is planned for 20 September to discuss the European social model and forthcoming financial perspectives, on which latter issue the budgetary envelope for the seventh FPRD is dependent. The major cuts which may be made to a budget which the Commission had hoped, in April, to bring to 77 billion euros (over seven years), in order to give a shot in the arm to research and to claw back some of the ground lost to the United States and Japan, continue to be a worry to those responsible for Europeans research issues. Against this backdrop, it cannot be ruled out that the adoption of the specific programmes could be postponed until after the Commission's seminar, even though this is not desirable from the point of view of DG Research or that of the Parliament's timetable. It is also worth noting that the adoption of the rules of participation, which are essential in terms of the simplification effort Commissioner Janez Potocnik is committed to, is likely to happen at the end of September.
The Commission is also set to adopt a new action plan for innovation, on 21 September. This exercise consists, firstly, of assessing the results of the 3% action plan of April 2003, which recommended a certain number of measures, mostly at national level, to bring the investment effort in research to 3% of GDP (see EUROPE 8938) and, secondly, to make new recommendations, particularly in terms of tax incentives, measures in favour of mobility and incentives via public procurement contracts.