Brussels, 14/06/2007 (Agence Europe) - Next Tuesday in Strasbourg, the representatives of the Commission, the European Parliament and the Council will be meeting in budgetary trilogue to seek funding for the future European Institute of Technology (EIT). At this stage, it seems clear that the Council will not agree to reopen the financial perspectives (2007-2013), the multi-annual financial framework that does not take EIT establishment into account. The Parliament balks at making large cuts in the budget of the 7th framework programme for research, as the European Commission has proposed to date. The latter may, according to some sources, suggest postponing part of the problem. The creation of the EIT would be on the basis of €308 million, the available margin of Heading 1a, the rest (nearly €2 billion) being the subject of later negotiation during the mid-term review of the financial perspectives in 2008-2009.
The European Commission had initially suggested that the EIT should be partially funded from programmes under Heading 1a, Competitiveness for Growth and Employment (the famous Lisbon Heading), which encompasses among other things funding for the 7th Framework Programme for Research. No less than €1.5 billion was to come from Heading 1a programmes to finance the EIT for the period 2008-2013, in order to finalise the total budget estimated by the European Commission at €2.4 billion. The remaining amounts would come from “funding available in the margin of Heading 1a” - i.e. €308 million - and another €527 million from the member states and the private sector. (oj)