Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-09-28-Speech-4-009"
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"en.20060928.4.4-009"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I take the floor on the issue of nanotechnology with some trepidation, because we have seen that the original plans in this area, from the point of view of the budget, have not been fulfilled. We have seen expenditure cut by 38%, and, even though in the last framework plan there was a substantial increase from EUR 140 million per year to EUR 600 million, this figure still falls short of what we would have wanted, especially given the EU’s dynamism in this area. We are still in a great position in the area of fundamental research and publication – the EU is ahead of the United States in the field. As regards patents, however, the United States’ worldwide share is 42%, whereas the EU stands at 36%. We have also seen that when it comes to getting products onto the market, the EU works more slowly. US federal expenditure is approximately equivalent to that of the whole of the EU in the area of nanotechnologies and nanosciences, and the individual Member States have unequal spending levels. In fact, only Ireland spends more per head of the population than the United States.
I wish to stress the fact that opinion polls carried out in 2001, based on a sample of 16 000 people, showed that very few people in the EU are informed about nanotechnologies. In this regard, I should like to quote two great scholars. The first is Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. In Faust, Mephisto says: ‘Despise reason and science, and you are mine, all mine’. I do not wish to take the same position as Mephisto, but, in any event, I should warn against cutting spending in this area in comparison with other countries. The other great scholar I wish to quote – and I hope this makes him happy, even though he is not here today – is Günter Verheugen, who last week listed the ten priorities for the Union in this area, one of which is of course preparation of staff, that is to say, investing in educating the public so that it is ready for the new technologies. We cannot move forward without such change, because public opinion in the EU is often not in favour of these technologies. Some safety issues are of course exaggerated, for example, some proposed amendments tabled to this report by the Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance. Amendments 3 and 6, for example would mean the virtual collapse of a whole framework of progress in research into nanosciences and nanotechnologies in the context of the Seventh Framework Programme. It is unacceptable that an entire complex research programme should be dismantled on the grounds that there can only be investment in areas where there will be no exposure for people and the environment. I believe that the European public, the European citizens, should be given safety guarantees, but it is not possible for us to wipe out an entire complex research plan.
Let me say that it is vitally important to emphasise the social aspect of nanotechnologies. They represent a huge opportunity for creating new jobs, for increasing investment in people, and for strengthening the whole area of medicine and health science. In this regard, nanotechnologies represent a huge opportunity. They are comparable in scope with microelectronics in the 1960s, 70s and 80s. Just like microelectronics, nanotechnologies permeate every area of people’s lives. They have major implications in the field of energy, for example, in terms of the possibilities of new lighter, more reliable and more robust materials. The possibility also opens up of building transport equipment that will use less energy. Demand for materials and energy can be cut substantially by means of using nanotechnologies. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the challenge that we have to meet head on if we are to guarantee that the European Community remains competitive on the world stage.
Ladies and gentlemen, these are my introductory remarks and I look forward to the debate. I should like to thank Mr Potočnik and Mr Verheugen of the Commission, the members of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, and Mr Renzo Tomellini, head of the nanosciences and nanotechnologies unit."@en1
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