Research and technological development RTD: perspectives for international cooperation

The European Parliament adopted the report by Mr Alain POMPIDOU (UPE, F) on perspectives for international cooperation in research and technological development. The report calls on the Commission to take into account the distinction between international, scientific and technical cooperation and technological development for industrial and commercial purposes with due regard for the necessary interaction between these two types of activity and calls for a distinction to be made between the dissemination of knowledge and the preparation of innovative and enabling technologies. Parliament calls for scientific cooperation in areas of excellence for the EU (for example mathematics, particle physics, molecular biology, etc.) and calls for the reciprocity principle to be applied as strictly as possible (in cooperation with developing countries, this principle must be respected 'as far as possible'). The Commission is urged to give greater consideration to consistency and complementarity between R&TD policy and other Union policies. Parliament calls for the major transverse projects and the major targeted projects to be identified, devoting particular attention to energy production (especially renewable energies), transport, new information and communication technologies (multimedia), environmental protection and climatology. The report also calls for international agreements between the European Union and third countries to develop an active policy regarding the protection of intellectual and industrial property. An evaluation of future prospects in the field of scientific and technical cooperation and technological development in the European Union should be carried out and measures should be taken to encourage new financial engineering measures concerning risk capital and development capital. Finally, the EP calls on the Commission to include systematically specific R&TD provisions in bilateral cooperation agreements and to conclude R&TD cooperation agreements. Concerning the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the Baltic countries, the report calls for greater scientific cooperation in the field of nuclear safety and measures to combat environmental pollution. �