Brussels, 17/12/2007 (Agence Europe) - Two executive agencies to manage research projects financed under the EU budget were created on 14 December. The “European Research Council Executive Agency” will take care of the implementation of the “Ideas” programme, which comes under the 7th framework programme for research and development (FPRD) and supports exploratory research. It will have a budget of around €7 billion. The “Research Executive Agency” will manage the Marie Curie bursary programme, research at the service of SMEs and various planks of the research themes “Space” and “Security”. It will have a budget of €6.5 billion, designed to fund research and provide assessment and support services for all other parts of the 7th FPRD. The executive agencies are governed by a specific regulation of the Council and concentrate mainly on management duties. The member states unanimously approved the creation of the agencies on 14 November 2007. The committee on budgets of the European Parliament returned a favourable opinion at its meeting of 27 November 2007. (B.C.)