Brussels, 20/07/2006 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 24 July, the Finnish Presidency convened a Competitiveness Council exclusively on the 7th Framework Programme for Research and Development, in the aim of reaching a common position with a view to negotiations with the European Parliament.
Ministers are to examine a compromise text presented by the Presidency on the base of the policy guidelines defined by the Council in June and the amended proposal adopted by the European Commission (EUROPE 9223) after the vote in first reading (EUROPE 9212). The Finnish project is essentially in line with the amended proposal, but is further removed when the Council and Parliament share the same position. Such is the case, in particular, concerning the creation of a thematic priority, “Space”, separate from that devoted to security in the “Cooperation” programme. The Council also joins the Parliament concerning the reintroduction of the minimum 15% participation objective for SMEs in collaborative research projects, an objective that the Commission intends to do away with (Ed.: this is a non-binding objective). The Presidency text, on the other hand, does not take on board the priority that the Parliament planned to grant to renewable energies by reserving two thirds of the energy envelope to renewables in the context of the “Cooperation” programme (see related article). On the budgetary aspects, the Presidency text suggests a compromise between the amounts claimed by the Parliament and those accepted by the Commission in its modified proposal. Finally, although the Parliament wished to keep a droit de regard via codecision procedure on the way the management structure of the European Research Council develops, the Council is inclined to consider that this is a structure for the implementation of the FPRD under Article 171 on which the Parliament will only be consulted in the future. This last point will no doubt be the key element of the future negotiation between the two institutions.
Two shadows loom over adoption of the common position: the EURATOM programme and research on human embryonic stem cells. On the nuclear issue, Austria had expressed reserve during its examination by the Council in June. The Parliament, however, which is only consulted on the nuclear question, considers that both FPRD chapters come together to form a whole and it therefore refuses to carry out a separate examination. The Finnish Presidency has noted this and suggests moving forward on both FPRD sections. Under these conditions, it would be surprising if Austria, alone, were to assume the responsibility for delaying enforcement of the whole of the FPRD due to a disagreement on allocation of a small part of the Euratom funding programme. As far as stem cell research is concerned, the Finnish Presidency hung on to the Commission's modified proposal which corresponds to the Parliament's position. For now, however, this text meets with the opposition of eight Member States (Germany, Austria, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia) which constitutes a blocking minority, sufficient albeit fragile. It remains to be seen whether, on Monday, certain slight changes to the text - certain States could be satisfied with a change that does away with the possibility of Community financing for the action of removing cells entailing the destruction of the embryo - will suffice to remove this obstacle.