The European Parliament adopted a resolution based on the report drafted by Jerzy BUZEK (EPP-ED, PL) on the Council common position concerning the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 - 2013). Parliament adopted compromise amendments which had been informally agreed with Council. The Council’s common position already reflected many amendments made by the European Parliament at first reading particularly those which sought to encourage the participation of SME’s, the situation of young researchers and certain ethical issues. The compromise amendments voted in plenary during the second reading mainly involve the following:
Parliament’s priorities: of the total budget (please see the financial statement) EUR 32,413 million (EUR 32,365 million according to the common position) would be allocated to the ten priority areas under the “Cooperation” programme: (i) health; (ii) food, agriculture and fisheries and biotechnology; (iii) information and communication technologies; iv) Nanosciences, nanotechnologies, and new production technologies; (v) energy; (vi) environment (including climate change); (vii) transport (including aeronautics); (viii) socio-economic sciences and the humanities; (ix) secuirty; (x) space. Parliament insisted on shifting some of the spending towards the EP's own priorities, including research on renewable energy and energy efficiency, as well as including the possibility of funding research into the promotion of child health, respiratory diseases (including those induced by allergies) and neglected diseases. The compromise stated, inter alia, that renewables and end-use energy efficiency will account for the "major part" of the budget of FP7's energy theme - rather than the two-thirds of the budget proposed in Parliament's 1st reading. Special attention would be devoted to coordination of aspects linked to rational and efficient use of energy. Under the theme security, the text states that the special requirements concerning confidentiality are to be enforced but the transparency of research findings is not to be unnecessarily restricted. In addition, areas are to be identified that permit the present transparency of research findings.
European Research Council: it was agreed that the administration costs of the ERC should not exceed 5% of its total budget in order to maximise funding for frontier research (at 1st reading, Parliament had asked for a limit of 3%). As regards the extent to which the Parliament should be involved in an interim evaluation of the ERC's structure, it was agreed that the codecision procedure would be used if changes in the structure of the ERC become necessary. The text also states that members of the Scientific Council will be appointed by the Commission following an independent and transparent procedure for their identification agreed with the Scientific Council including a consultation of the scientific community and a report to the European Parliament and the Council.
Risk Sharing Finance Facility (RSFF): whereas the Council had planned to allocate EUR 1 billion from FP7 to finance the RSFF (which is to be matched by an equal amount from the European Investment Bank), the compromise provided for a lower contribution - EUR 500 million - from FP7 until 2010, with the possibility of releasing up to an additional EUR 500 million for the period 2010-2013 after an evaluation process, with which the Council and Parliament would proceed after a report from the Commission.
Joint Research Centre (JRC): the JRC should aim to facilitate access to its facilities by European and non-European researchers, thereby increasing its cooperation with other public and private research organisations and contributing more scientifically to training, which will remain a high priority for the JRC.
European Institute of Technology: Parliament added a statement to the Annex stressing that no funds under the FP7 programme should contribute to the establishment and/or administrative costs of the proposed European Institute of Technology and that only administrative costs directly associated with research projects may be covered.