The Council's common position incorporated the four amendments adopted by the European Parliament at first reading and approved by the Commission. They aim to ensure that:
- pharmaceutical research contributes to the improvement in the production and procurement of food of good quality at affordable prices;
- the competitiveness of the plant protection sector requires a level of protection for innovation which is equivalent to that granted to medicinal products by Regulation (EEC) No 1768/92;
- one of the objectives of the supplementary protection certificate is to place European industry on the same competitive footing as its North American and Japanese counterparts.
The Council also incorporated in full the technical improvements to the text introduced by the Commission in its amended proposal.
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