51997AG0409(04)

COMMON POSITION (EC) No 14/97 adopted by the Council on 27 January 1997 with a view to adopting European Parliament and Council Decision No . . ./97/EC of . . ., adapting for the second time Decision No 1110/94/EC concerning the fourth framework programme of the European Community activities in the field of research and technological development and demonstration (1994 to 1998) (97/C 111/04)

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and, in particular, Article 130i (1) and (2) thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission (1),

Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee (2),

Having regard to the opinion of the Committee of the Regions (3),

Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 189b of the Treaty (4),

Whereas Article 1 (3) of Decision No 1110/94/EC (5) stipulates that not later than 30 June 1996 the European Parliament and the Council shall review the maximum overall amount for Community financial participation in the fourth framework programme with the possibility of increasing it;

Whereas the 1996 Annual Report on the research and technology development activities of the European Union considers the state of implementation of the fourth framework programme during its first year, demonstrating that available funds in 1995 have been fully committed and that a very high level of interest has been expressed by the research community and industry; whereas this has made it impossible to support some high quality projects;

Whereas the financial perspective of the European Union allows for only limited supplementary funding of the research framework programme;

Whereas assurances have been given by the Commission that the financial supplement, as decided on, will in any case be limited by the ceiling of heading 3 of the current financial perspective set out in the Interinstitutional Agreement of 29 October 1993 on budgetary discipline and improvement of the budgetary procedure (6), without prejudice to the other priorities in that heading, such as trans-European networks, etc.;

Whereas, in order to ensure that research efforts should continue to contribute to the competitiveness of European industry at international level, to the quality of life and to sustainable development, it is appropriate to decide on further funding for certain specific programmes,

HAVE DECIDED AS FOLLOWS:

Sole Article

1. The maximum overall amount for Community financial participation in the fourth framework programme is hereby increased by ECU 100 million, to be allocated to certain specific programmes of the first activity of the fourth framework programme as set out in Annex I.

2. Decision No 1110/94/EC is hereby amended as follows:

- the first subparagraph of Article 1 (3) shall be replaced by the following:

'The maximum overall amount for Community financial participation in the fourth framework programme shall be ECU 11 864 million. Of this, ECU 5 449 million shall be for the period 1994 to 1996 and ECU 6 415 million for the period 1997 to 1998`.

- Annex I shall be replaced by the text in Annex II to this Decision.

Done at Brussels, . . .

For the European Parliament

The President

For the Council

The President

(1) OJ No C 115, 19. 4. 1996, p. 13.

(2) OJ No C 212, 22. 7. 1996, p. 24.

(3) OJ No C 337, 11. 11. 1996, p. 55.

(4) Opinion of the European Parliament of 18 June 1996 (OJ No C 198, 8. 7. 1996, p. 40), Council common position of 27 January 1997 (not yet published in the Official Journal) and European Parliament Decision of . . . (not yet published in the Official Journal).

(5) OJ No L 126, 18. 5. 1994, p. 1. Decision as amended by Decision No 616/96/EC (OJ No L 86, 4. 4. 1996, p. 69).

(6) OJ No C 331, 7. 12. 1993, p. 1.

ANNEX I

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ANNEX II

'ANNEX I

FOURTH FRAMEWORK PROGRAMME (1994 to 1998)

AMOUNTS AND BREAKDOWN

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STATEMENT OF THE COUNCIL'S REASONS

I. INTRODUCTION

On 2 February 1996 the Commission forwarded a proposal for a Decision adapting for the second time Decision No 1110/94/EC concerning the fourth R & TD framework programme, as modified by Decision No 616/96/EC, pursuant to Article 1 (3) of this Decision (1) (2). This proposal is based on Article 130i (1) and (2) of the EC Treaty.

The European Parliament delivered its opinion on the proposal on 18 June 1996.

The Economic and Social Committee gave its opinion on 29 May 1996 and the Committee of the Regions on 13 June 1996.

An amended proposal of the Commission was presented on 27 September 1996 following the opinion of the European Parliament.

The Commission subsequently revised its proposal by means of a letter of Commissioner Cresson to the Council and the European Parliament of 13 November 1996, formally confirmed by the Commission during the Council of 5 December 1996, whereby the proposed amount for the financial supplement to the fourth framework programme was reduced to ECU 100 million. The Commission further proposed that this should be used for a selective refinancing of specific programmes in order to allow for the funding of certain research topics within the first activity of the fourth framework programme.

The Council adopted its common position pursuant to Article 189b of the Treaty on 27 January 1997.

II. COUNCIL COMMON POSITION

In adopting this common position, the Council underlined that this decision should in no way prejudge future decisions on the content and funding of the fifth R & TD framework programme.

The common position of the Council is largely in conformity with the Commission's revised proposal of 13 November 1996 as regards both the overall amount of ECU 100 million and the breakdown of funds between the different programmes and activities.

(a) As regards the overall amount, the Council considered the revised Commission proposal to be a realistic one and therefore decided to accept the amount of ECU 100 million.

It is recalled that in submitting its initial proposal, the Commission indicated that the proposed amount of ECU 700 million (for both EC and EAEC framework programmes) was dependent on a substantial raising of the ceiling of category 3 of the financial perspective. However, in the light of the Council's decision that the financial perspective for 1998 and 1999 would remain unchanged, this amount no longer corresponded to the budgetary reality. The Council examined the revised proposal of the Commission for an amount of ECU 100 million within the budgetary context and came to the conclusion that this amount is compatible with the existing ceiling of category 3, subject to an urgent and detailed examination by the Council of the pressures on that category for the rest of the financing period, taking also into account the needs for additional financing of other policy areas.

(b) As regards the choice of activities for additional financing and the breakdown of funds between them, the Council followed the Commission's view that, in the light of the reduced amount of the supplement, funds should be spread over a smaller number of activities in order to achieve a critical mass and thus have a noticeable impact on selected areas of research.

In this respect, account was also taken of the European Parliament's proposed amendments, in particular as regards TSE-related diseases, vaccines and landmines.

- As regards TSE, the Council, while supporting an additional research effort in this field, considered that the possibilities of absorbing the amount of ECU 35 million proposed by the Commission for research in the TSE area alone were limited. It further considered, in line with the European Parliament's amendment 65, that additional research should be supported also for vaccines and viral diseases within the Biomed and Biotech specific programmes. Therefore, it agreed that the provision of ECU 35 million should cover both TSE and vaccines/viral diseases.

- As regards landmines, the Council agreed with the European Parliament (see amendments 22, 25, 26, 27, 28, 31 and 33) on the need to provide additional funding for research in the area of anti-personnel mines, as also proposed by the Commission.

(1) This Article provides that, 'in the light of an assessment of the state of implementation of the framework programme, of its contribution to the competitiveness of Community industry at international level, of value for money and of the development of the financial perspectives of the European Union, the European Parliament and Council shall review the maximum overall amount with the possibility of increasing it to ECU 12 359 million`.

(2) On the same date, the Commission also submitted a proposal for a Council Decision adapting for the second time Decision 94/268/Euratom concerning a framework programme of Community activities in the field of research and training for the European Atomic Energy Community (1994 to 1998), based on Article 7 of the EAEC Treaty. The Council decided to consult the European Parliament also on this proposal, on an optional basis; the European Parliament delivered its opinion on 18 June 1996.