Cresson in bid to boost study funds

Date: 03/10/1996

By Simon Coss

THE European Commission's directorate-general for research (DGXII) is still holding out for 700 million ecu of unspent cash from the agriculture budget, even though EU finance ministers seem certain to torpedo the plan at a meeting later this month.

“We still want the money,” said a spokesman for Research Commissioner Edith Cresson this week, adding: “We are not going to give up. If this proposal is going to be buried then it is up to finance ministers to do that. They must take their responsibility.”

Cresson will press her case for the cash at a meeting of EU research ministers next Monday (7 October), but is almost certain to fail in her attempts to claw back the disputed millions.

Finance ministers from six countries - France, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands, Finland and Sweden - have made it clear that they feel any savings from the agriculture budget should be returned to contributor states.

Only Greece and Portugal, both net beneficiaries from the EU budget, have given their full support to the plan.

“The Commission needs to dump some programmes and set priorities. That is what we have to do at national level. With the Commission it is always 'and', 'and', never one thing or another,” insisted one Dutch official.

At next week's meeting, Cresson will also present her proposals for Europe's research priorities for the beginning of the next century.

The Commission wants the Fifth Framework Programme, which is scheduled to come into force in 1999, to concentrate on six key areas: the environment, new technologies and the challenges posed by the 'information society', promoting sustainable growth, improving training and mobility for research scientists, giving support to technological development in the Union's small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and increasing research cooperation with third countries.

Environmental priorities will include tackling pollution, studies into natural phenomena such as global warming and research into improving diet and health care.

Work on information technology will move away from infrastructure projects and concentrate on methods of developing more user-friendly computer software.

Projects likely to receive Commission support in the field of sustainable growth would include cleaner, safer methods of energy production, integrated public transport systems and environmentally friendly farming projects.

Launched in 1994, the current framework programme has a total budget of 12.3 billion ecu.