Strasbourg, 15/11/2006 (Agence Europe) - On Monday, on the sidelines of the European Parliament plenary session in Strasbourg, the industry committee completed its examination at second reading of the draft 7th Framework Programme for Research and Development (FPRD), except for the specific programmes on which the Parliament is not consulted. The next major step will consist in plenary endorsement of the committee vote, in principle during the second session in Brussels, in November.
During its vote, the industry committee adopted 39 compromise amendments that received the Council's endorsement during interinstitutional negotiations. Some of these amendments aim to re-establish the priorities that the Parliament hoped to grant to renewable energies, research into children's health, respiratory diseases (including those induced by allergies), and research into neglected diseases. Regarding the future European Research Council (ERC), which is responsible for supporting exploratory research, the Parliament agreed that the administrative costs of the ERC should not exceed 5% of its total budget (in its first reading Parliament had asked for a limit of 3%). On the issue of the extent to which the Parliament should be involved in an evaluation of the ERC's structure, it was agreed that the codecision procedures would be used if changes in the structure of the ERC became necessary. The Risk Sharing Finance Facility (RSFF) of the EIB, designed to encourage bank lending to research projects, was also the subject of compromise. While the Council had planned to allocate €1 billion from FPRD7 to finance the RSFF (which is to be matched by an equal amount from the EIB), the compromise provides for a lower contribution from FPRD7 until 2010 - €500 million - with the possibility of releasing up to an additional €500 million after an evaluation process. MEPs also consider that the framework programme must not serve to finance the new European Institute of Technology. Only administrative costs directly relating to research projects may be covered by funding under the framework programme.
The committee also completed its examination of the rules of participation that are the subject of the Busquin Report, also on the agenda of the second session in November. (oj)