Brussels, 13/07/2006 (Agence Europe) - The parliamentary committee on industry chaired by British Conservative Giles Chichester took a stance on the content of rules of participation for the Community and Euratom chapters of the 7th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development without, however, proceeding to the final vote on the reports by the Belgian Socialist, Philippe Busquin, and Anne Laperrouze (UDF). The committee plans to put pressure on the Council following Austria's reservation regarding the Euratom programme at first reading (EUROPE 9202). The EP, which is only consulted on the nuclear chapter of the framework programme, plans to stress the need for concomitant adoption of the two chapters of the programme. We recall that, at the present time, the EP has still not examined the specific programmes (the vote in committee is in principle to be on 12 September).
During its vote on the Busquin report, the committee adopted over one hundred amendments out of 614 presented. Although some amendments provide useful details for the text proposed by the European Commission, they do not always clarify a text that is highly complex. Several amendments thus bring into question the attempts to simplify certain aspects of the procedures for selecting research projects cofinanced by the future framework programme. One attention is drawn, however, to: - an attempt to define the role of coordinator in a more precise manner; - the introduction, instead of the relatively simple withholding system proposed by the Commission, of a guarantee fund that is far more structured and that will intervene should one participant fail; - and the addition of a scale for Community contribution. In the Commission's proposal, projects financed under the framework programme received funding up to 50% of eligible costs, the part covered by the Community budget reaching up to 75% for public research bodies, universities and SMEs. The Commission provided that exploratory research projects selected by the European Research Council would be financed up to 100%. MEPs want the part covered by the FPRD to be at least 75% for SMEs, universities and research institutes. They call for this same rate of 75% for research activities on space (mainly GMES) and security. Finally, 100% of the eligible costs should be paid by the Commission for recruiting researchers linked to the implementation of a project or activities relating to training, networking and dissemination of results.