92001E1818

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1818/01

by Cristiana Muscardini (UEN) to the Commission

(21 June 2001)

Subject: Commission Ispra Joint Research Centre (Italy)

For some time the Commission has been pursuing a rather ambiguous policy towards the Ispra research centre and quietly shifting some of its activities and hence personnel to other Union research sites not due to be expanded in the near future (for example the Petten centre).

According to an unofficial report, the Director-General of the Ispra centre announced to the research staff last week that one of the four institutes operating at Ispra was to be closed.

1. Can the Commission confirm the report?

2. If so, is the closure to be interpreted as a move towards possible future conversion, reorganisation, or the breakup of the Ispra centre?

Answer given by Mr Busquin on behalf of the Commission

(30 July 2001)

The Joint Research Centre's (JRC) Ispra site currently comprises four Institutes: Environment (EI), Space Applications (SAI), Health and Consumer Protection (IHCP) and Systems, Informatics and Safety (ISIS).

An independent assessment panel concluded that there was a substantial overlap between the activities of SAI, and those of EI and ISIS. These findings are confirmed by an internal audit carried out within the JRC.

Moreover, the objectives of SAI are technology focussed, whereas the other Institutes have clear links to Community policies.

The Commission will therefore re-organise these three Institutes into two new ones that will be identified with policy objectives rather than a particular technology.

One institute will be a focus for activities whose main objective is to maintain Europe's increasingly vulnerable environment - both by supporting Community environmental policies and by supporting the integration of an environmental component into other policies. Emphasis will be given to supporting the strategy for sustainable development.

The other institute will aim to provide better protection of the security of the individual, the taxpayer and, increasingly, the consumer.

The principle of these changes has been explained to the staff that will be involved in the re-organisation.

These changes are part of a wider initiative to focus and concentrate more the JRC's activities on the key priorities linked to its mission in support of Community policies. They are designed to ensure that the JRC has a sustainable future, integrated into the European Research Area. There are therefore no plans for the breakup of the Ispra centre.