The Common Position is the result of
intense inter-institutional negotiations, following the Commission's proposal
on the revision of the financial framework of 19 September 2007 (see ACI/2007/2213),
as well as, the adoption of a resolution on the EIT by the EP on 26 September
2007.
Within this context, informal and technical
meetings have pinpointed avenues for compromise on a number of outstanding
legislative issues. In parallel, discussions on the financing of the EIT (and
Galileo) have been conducted within the Council's Budget Committee and
between the two branches of the budget authority in the context of the 2008
budget procedure.
On 20 November 2007 the chairwoman of the
ITRE Committee, Ms Angelika NIEBLER (EPP-ED, DE), confirmed
Parliament's agreement to the text agreed by Coreper on 14 November 2007 and
to the Commission's Declaration (subject to an agreement on the financing of
the EIT – see below).
The Competitiveness Council reached a
political agreement on Friday 23 November 2007 on the establishment of the
EIT. The same day, the Council and the European Parliament reached an
agreement on the financing of Galileo and the EIT, with EUR 309 million earmarked
for the EIT for the period 2008-2013.
The main subjects of negotiation on which
accord has been reached are:
- the educational dimension: A consensus has emerged on the
definition of higher education institutions and on degrees and diplomas;
- participation of KICs in
Community programmes (recital 17 and Article 14): the text of Article 14 has been
re-drafted to avoid creating the expectation that all the administrative
costs of the KICs, which could be significant, would necessarily be
funded through the Community budget.
- the definition of Participating States (Article 2
definitions): The
word "European"
has been deleted by
common agreement in response to the EP proposal, while the European dimension
has been reinforced in Article 7(3).
- the EIT label (recital 12 and Article 8): A
compromise has been reached between the EP's and the Council's position
(compulsory versus voluntary use).
- the concept of a "pilot
phase" (recital
24 and Article 19): replaced by "initial
phase".
- the fields of first KICs (recital 24): The Council agreed, in
response to Parliament's request, to add "renewable energy" and the "next generation of ICTs" in recital 24.
- the period for the selection of the
first KICs (recital 24 and Article 18) has been shortened to 18 months (from 24) in response to the EP's
request.
- evaluation and Commission's review of the proposal
(Article 16(3)): It
was agreed that the reference to the Commission's capacity to review the
regulation "where
appropriate" would
be linked to the evaluation of the EIT.
- establishment of the support structure (Article 6
of the Annex): During
the negotiations, the need emerged for a provision in the Regulation to
prepare the support structure. The Commission has, with the
co-legislators' agreement, looked at various options and considers that
the best way to proceed would be to include a new article in the
Statutes which would allow it temporarily to take legal and financial
decisions on behalf of the EIT until a Director is appointed by the
Board.
- the Identification Committee
(Article 1 of the Statutes):
To emphasize the "ad-hoc" basis of an Identification Committee
it has been agreed that it be used only for the appointment of the first
Board members.
- In response to Parliament's request
for a more open and informative identification process (vis-à-vis the
Parliament and Council), a Declaration of the Commission was added to
the minutes of the Council.
It should
however be noted that the only amendment that the Council did not accept in
its entirety was one regarding the sectors of activity of the first KICs
(Recital 24). The European Parliament would have preferred a reference to energy
in general but the Council insisted on a reference to renewable energies.