Stempra newsletter
Euro Chat -
By our man in Brussels
Welcome to a new regular feature where I get to give you a flavour
of the continental lifestyle, plus news and views on the internal machinations
of our great European Institutions here in Brussels. The biggest news
here is of course…
FP7 cancelled!
Or a least the big exhibition planned to launch the latest, biggest
and bravest European Research programme has been cancelled due to “circumstances
beyond our control” said embarrassed Commission officials. The
big event scheduled for March 7 to 16 next year at Brussels Tour et
Taxis site had been launched with a fanfare in the summer and then
things went very silent. The big speeches and VIP reception to officially
launch FP7 will, of course, still go ahead on the evening of 7 March
but the chance for the rest of us to join the celebrations is currently
on hold.
Budget breakdown
But at least the budget for FP7 has been finally set at €50 521
million following scrutiny in the European Parliament. Most of the thematic
areas for research got a small increases (e.g. €33 million extra
for Nanotechnology and €35 million for Energy) compared to the
Commission’s modified proposal. The exception was Security and
Space which took a €78 million hit and the ‘Science and Society’ area
also suffered a whopping 22% cut from €359 million to €280
million – something to remember the next time you get a chance
to talk to your MEP perhaps.
The FP7 proposal now faces a second reading in the European Parliament
probably on 29 November and the current Finnish presidency states that
the objective of both the [European] Council and the Parliament “is
to get the programme through in the second reading in order to ensure
a timely launch of the FP7 in January 2007.”
Participation punch-up
So that is alright then. Unfortunately not – there is still one
potential spanner in the works: the rules for participation. In order
for FP7 to really get off the block in January these rules need to make
it through the Parliament on a first reading. And a first reading agreement
between the Council of Ministers and the Parliament is by no means certain.
The rules for participation set out the terms under which all research
funding will be provided by the Commission and define the technical
detail and criteria for funding recipients.
They are now a major element of the informal high-level three-party
discussions that have been ongoing between the Commission, Parliament
and Council on FP7 since 5 September. Issues where there are clear disagreements
between the three institutions include the cost models to be used under
FP7, the upper limits for co-financing of projects (in terms of percentage
of total budget), and critically from an industrial participation point
of view, intellectual property arising from the projects. Watch this
space!
Tim Reynolds
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