Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-03-09-Speech-3-277"
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"en.20050309.18.3-277"2
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".
Mr President, there could hardly be a better day than today, when this House has expressed its position on the mid-term review of Lisbon, to take up the issue of the future of European research policy.
Turning to the Locatelli report itself, a report that will make a significant contribution to the success of the forthcoming framework programme, allow me, firstly, to express my sincere gratitude for all the support you have given until now for the proposed doubling of funds for FP7. This is fully in line with the Commission’s proposal for the next financial perspective and firmly defends the proposal to set the EU budget above 1% of GDP. Let me make a personal comment here. I really appreciate this support. It is crucial. Together we have a real chance to start changing the structure of the European budget in favour of more growth- and competitiveness-orientated actions.
The financial perspective debate will thus be the moment of truth for the European Union. It will be then, and not later, that we must demonstrate that we are ready to address the challenges ahead of us fully. We should not miss this opportunity to prove that we are ready to invest in the future rather than look to the past.
Second, you rightly ask for simpler and clearer administrative procedures in order to improve efficiency and reduce the costs for participants, in particular SMEs and small actors. I have underlined the importance of simplification on several occasions, starting with the hearing last autumn, and I did not forget the message I was given two weeks ago in this plenary. We have been told since FP4 that there will be simplification. It is time to do something. The Commission will do all in its power to achieve this and I look to Parliament to support it.
Third, let me thank you for your support for the swift establishment of the European Research Council: I am using your exact wording. Let me underline two fundamental principles that I intend to strive for vigorously: autonomy and scientific excellence. I wish to assure you of my determination to guarantee this autonomy. Furthermore, autonomy will be the best guarantor of the highest level of scientific excellence, which should be the sole criterion for the selection of the proposed projects. What is more, the ERC needs to support at European level research in all scientific fields, from specific industry-driven research to social and human sciences. The EU needs high-level researchers in all research fields in order to grow and compete with the USA, Japan and other strong parties. In terms of the structure of the ERC, our current view is that an executive agency would be best placed to support such a council. Let me assure you that we are examining all possible options, including those based on a more mid-term approach, and will inform you of our decision in due course.
Fourth, the report is fully aligned with the Commission’s intention in recommending a substantial increase of funding for Marie Curie actions and welcoming the Commission’s proposal for European technology platforms and joint technology initiatives. As you know, this will be an important part of the forthcoming proposal for the framework programme. Europe is weak in public and private partnerships, and this needs to be sorted out. Focusing the efforts of all the stakeholders around a few well-identified key technologies is of the utmost importance, and this is what we intend to do.
Finally, the report puts great emphasis on the regional dimension, by underlining the need for the participation of regions in order to increase investment in research and innovation. Let me add that the Structural Funds and European research policy share common objectives. The link between the regional dimension and FP7 is important in the sense that they should be mutually reinforcing. Parliament is fully justified in drawing attention to this requirement.
Let me conclude by saying that I consider the Locatelli report a strong encouragement to my current preparations for the FP7 proposal. I am happy to note that on all key issues we very much follow the same line. This is an encouraging signal for the legislative process ahead of us. I trust you will send a strong signal tomorrow in your vote on the Locatelli report. We need this strong signal. It would, and should, be widely heard. It would be an echo of the support you broadly expressed during the debate earlier today for renewed efforts for Lisbon, and an echo of our mutual readiness and determination to really deliver.
Let me thank Mrs Locatelli, the rapporteur, in particular, and all the committee members for the fruitful and intense cooperation demonstrated during this first month of our work together. I would also like to thank everyone present at this late hour for their real interest in and commitment to future European research policy.
The Commission attaches a great deal of importance to the adoption of the Locatelli report. It constitutes the European Parliament’s formal position on our June communication and, what is more, will pave the way for preparing the Commission’s proposal on the new framework programme to be adopted on 6 April 2005.
Before highlighting what I consider to be the key elements of the Locatelli report, I would like to share with you some thoughts about the general context of European research and our plans for the Seventh Framework Programme. Even if some of you heard this during the plenary debate on the question of the financing of FP7 two weeks ago, the context is clear. We want and need to relaunch the Lisbon Strategy. The intensive discussion this morning on the mid-term review of the Lisbon Strategy has allowed us to take the measure of the challenges ahead. Europe cannot compete on the basis of cheap labour or low social standards. We cannot compete on the back of our environment. We do not have the natural resources to sustain our prosperity; we only have our brains, intelligence and creativity. Knowledge, in the broader sense, is our strongest factor of competitiveness in the global, fiercely competitive market place.
In Europe, we need to become much better at producing knowledge through research, diffusing knowledge through education, and using and applying knowledge through innovation. That means that the knowledge triangle of research, education and innovation must function within favourable framework conditions, which reward the knowledge that is put to work. The Commission is already working hard to develop such framework conditions for knowledge and innovation. For example, we will come forward later this year with a revision of the state aid regime, work on fiscal incentives for research and development and innovation, guidelines on cooperation between industry and universities, re-evaluation of the profession of European researchers, and other actions. Only knowledge-based growth can leverage the resources that we need to sustain the cost of the inclusive society, with the high levels of care and protection that Europeans aspire to. Building the knowledge society is thus probably the best and maybe the only way to sustain the European model of society, without having to make a trade-off between economic growth, social cohesion and environmental protection.
It is in this same Lisbon context that I will present our proposals for the Seventh Framework Programme. As some of you rightly stated during our debate on the oral question on the research budget in Strasbourg two weeks ago, FP7 needs to be the framework programme for the Lisbon Strategy. I could not agree more. I want it to be the programme for the growth and job strategy. The duration of the programme will be seven years, as in the case of the next financial perspectives. But given that we envisage a mid-term review, this allows us more stability, but also more flexibility. Both are needed.
As regards the structure, there will be more emphasis on themes and less on instruments. Cooperation projects, formerly known as collaborative research, will be more focused on industry needs and will therefore be more supportive of growth. I hope that you will all appreciate this new approach. There will be a strong focus on ideas, with actions concerning frontier research in the context of the European Research Council.
The ‘people’ part of FP7 will strengthen the existing and well-appreciated mobility actions under Marie Curie. The ‘capacities’ part will deal with infrastructures, SMEs, regions, the research potential of all Member States, as well as science, society and international cooperation.
As regards the management of the funds, which are to double, I am fully aware of the challenges ahead. But with their simplification and rationalisation on the one hand, and modernised management as well as externalisation of some of the activities – such as the European Research Council, SMEs and the mobility actions – on the other, we are prepared to rise to this challenge."@en1
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