Brussels, 16/10/2006 (Agence Europe) - During a special meeting, Heads of cabinet and European Commissioners attempted on Monday afternoon, to find a solution for releasing a few hundred million Euro (Commissioner Verheugen spoke on Friday of a billion) needed for getting the European Institute of Technology up and running, expected to be operational by 2009. The draft regulation will be the subject of a discussion and formal adoption on Wednesday during the Commission's weekly meeting, followed by a press conference with Commissioner Figel and president Barroso.
This institute, which should help make the links between the universities and enterprise closer, is, in the long term, should be able to award European technology diplomas that meet harmonised training criteria and expectations from enterprise. But above all, it aims to set about building a Community of knowledge that develops applied research projects that meet the needs of industry and business. An envelope of €2.4bn (600 million a year) will finance this research over the period 2009-13. According to Commissioner Figel's spokesperson, most of this amount will be provided by the private sector. What is missing for the instant is “an initial amount of a few million Euro” to kick-start the institute's activities and its “light central structure”. Although Gunter Verheugen confirmed on Friday during a press conference on security research that 1 billion Euro is needed and would be taken from the 7th framework programme, Mr Figel's spokesperson preferred to speak about the use of credit that had not been used up. Commissioner Potocnik's services recognised on Monday that they needed to find funding for the Institute of Technology but stressed the necessity to “safeguard the framework programme”. Intervention today on the breakdown of credit for the framework programme, when the definitive agreement between Parliament and the Council is practically sealed, could threaten its effective application for 1 January 2007. (oj)