Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-11-29-Speech-3-187"
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"en.20061129.18.3-187"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, we have done it at last; the Seventh Framework Programme on Research is on the way, and, over the next seven years, the European Union will be investing a total of EUR 54 billion in research. Once we have adopted the specific programmes tomorrow, we – in this House, in the Commission, and the Council – will be able to look back, with our consciences clear, on almost two years worth of hard work.
It is fortunate that the Seventh Research Framework Programme can concentrate properly on excellence in research. I call on the Commission to implement the Programme without delay; I also call on them to establish clear, transparent, well thought-out, effective and fair tendering procedures, to assess them – or cause them to be assessed – in an objective manner, and to implement them in practical and unbureaucratic ways. I am sure that the approach that we in this House have come up with is far from being the worst.
Finally, though, let me call on the European research community – the people who do the research, the people who work on the details, the people who find things out – to make use of what this research programme offers; Parliament has done its work, and now it is up to you to make progress with your research and do something vital in giving Europe a peaceful, free and prosperous future.
I would like particularly to thank all those Members with whom I have had the privilege of working, and in whom I had complete trust, as rapporteur on the Joint Research Centre’s nuclear research activities over the past few months, and Commissioner Potočnik as well.
We have not, unfortunately, achieved all the things we set ourselves – we have not, for example, managed to double expenditure on research – but the marked increase – of 50% – in the budget in comparison with the Sixth Framework Programme is a step in the right direction. This increase took some tough negotiating with the Council, and sends a positive message to our research institutes and will – it is to be hoped – foster a mood of optimism, but we missed by a mile the twofold increase for which we had hoped, and other economic areas in the world show considerably higher rates of increase in research spending.
We will then fall still further behind in comparison with the USA and Japan. China and other states are continuing to catch us up. The consequences of that will hit us hard and also leave their mark on prosperity, the labour market and social peace.
Europe’s research programme is not, to be sure, the most extensive in the world, but it is one of the smartest, and the same can be said, in the nuclear research field, of the Joint Research Centre, on which I am reporting. As Commissioner Potočnik rightly pointed out in his introductory remarks, the Joint Research Centre is set to take over a crucial moderating role in many key areas of nuclear activity.
One of these, firstly, is nuclear safety. Member States have different views on the use to which nuclear energy should be put; some of them are building new nuclear power stations, while others are not. Some are researching into new fourth-generation reactors, whilst others are not. These are things on which they are perfectly entitled to decide for themselves, but safety is not bounded by national borders, and that is why the Joint Research Centre must ensure that the necessary know-how is available at European level.
Secondly, there is also the monitoring of security. Recent developments at international level have made issues of non-proliferation of nuclear technology and weaponry even more acutely important. These are pressing questions, and Europe must come up with an answer to them, so I am delighted to see that the Seventh Research Programme is to give a shot in the arm to the Institute for Transuranium Elements, which leads the world in this field.
The same can be said, thirdly, of the maintenance and transfer of knowledge in the field of nuclear technology, which is of particular interest to me. We have to ensure that young and outstanding scientists across Europe can apply new ideas to addressing existing problems, but we also must not lose the knowledge already acquired, and so we have to ensure that existing and newly-gained knowledge is exchanged within the European Union to an even greater degree than it already is. The Joint Research Centre can certainly make a major contribution to this – and not just in the nuclear field.
Although this House’s work will be done once we have voted tomorrow, much remains to be done – by the Member States, by the Commission, and, above all, by the research community. I call on the Member States to invest even more money than before in research activities; for example, to avail themselves of the opportunity to invest money from the Structural Funds in developing research and development capabilities in their countries. The creation of new research structures is not a function of the Seventh Research Programme, but rather a task for the Member States and the Structural Funds."@en1
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