Brussels, 23/11/2007 (Agence Europe) - The European Union has reached a political agreement on the creation of the European Institute of Technology (EIT), the Portuguese research minister, José Manuel Gago, announced on Friday. This agreement, which is the result of an informal compromise between the Council and the European Parliament during the Portuguese presidency, will allow work to start on the implementation of the EIT regulation from spring 2008, once the second reading, planned for the Council/EP co-decision procedure, has been concluded. However, one major point remains outstanding: that of its funding, as European Research Commissioner Janez Potocnick explained to the public debate. This will be resolved on 23 November by the budget ministers or, if they fail to reach agreement, at the December European Council. The Commission had proposed, with the agreement of the Parliament, a budget of €308.7 million for the first six years of the institute's functioning (2008-2013), but the question remains as to which part of the budget the money will be taken from. Mr Potocnik went on to state that the board of administration of the EIT would have to be appointed as soon as possible. The site for the premises of the institute will be decided upon 12 months after the entry into force of the regulation. France and Austria have already expressed an interest in hosting the new structure but, during the debate, other delegations, such as Hungary and Poland, also applied to host the future EIT on their territory. As the Bulgarian minister for education and science, Daniel Valtchev, pointed out, it will be up to the host country to provide the lion's share of funding efforts, a point on which the presidency expressed its agreement. (I.L.)