Funding dispute hinders accord on research plan

Date: 08/10/1998

By Peter Chapman

THE dispute between member states and MEPs over the budget for the EU's next research and development programme is holding up efforts to agree on the details of the scheme.

The European Parliament and Union governments are locked in talks to try to settle their dispute over the funding for the Fifth Framework Programme, which is scheduled to run from late 1998 to 2002.

Euro MPs want to pump 16.3 billion ecu into the R&D effort, while member states were until recently only willing to provide 14 billion ecu for the programme to fund research into everything from nuclear fission to the car of the future.

They have since increased their offer to 14.3 billion, but this too has been rejected by the Parliament.

This figure was chosen because it would keep the funding for the next programme in line with the cost of the current fourth framework R&D effort which began in 1994.

But MEPs are continuing to insist on a larger budget and EU sources say a mutually acceptable compromise is “unlikely to emerge” when the two sides hold another round of talks next Monday (12 October), on the eve of a meeting of EU research ministers.

Hardliners Germany, France, Sweden and the UK are seen as the least likely to back down in the negotiations on the overall budget.

While the two sides continue their search for a way to resolve the dispute, research ministers are expected to focus their discussions on the specific 'thematic' and 'horizontal' programmes within the fifth framework.

These include proposals for research and development to foster the 'user-friendly information society', the 'resources of the living world' and moves to 'promote human potential' through greater support for the training and mobility of researchers.

Ministers are also expected to discuss details of the funding of the Union's joint research centre, but without taking any decisions.

“The idea was to agree on these issues at the Council. But they can hardly do this until the budget is first agreed,” said one diplomat.