Luxembourg, 07 Jun 2005

The session dedicated to the "Research" component of the "Competitiveness" Council of the European Union was held in Luxembourg on 7 June 2005 and was chaired by Luxembourg's Minister for Culture, Higher Education and Research, François Biltgen, and attended by Luxembourg's Secretary of State for Culture, Higher Education and Research, Octavie Modert.

The Council held an orientation debate on the Commission proposal concerning the Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration (2007-2013), with the main emphasis on aspects related to collaborative research and human resources.

The Luxembourg Presidency asked the Ministers to provide useful and concrete guidelines so that the technical examination of the scientific content of the priority issues can be the subject, by the end of June 2005, of a draft revised text so that this proposal can be used as the basis for the work of the future British Presidency.

The 6 priority issues of this Framework Programme that were dealt with were:

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* the necessity of maintaining "security and space" under one and the same subject area;

* the conditions under which "traditional" style initiatives, in particular collaborative research projects, should be undertaken by joint technological initiatives proposed by the Commission; * the rules for obtaining a high level of participation of SMEs in the programme; * the diffusion and transfer of technologies; * human resources; * the management, implementation and execution of the Seventh Framework Programme.

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In response to a question on the financing of the Seventh Framework Programme, the Luxembourg Presidency outlined that it wanted the Council to continue working without waiting for the end of discussions on the financial perspectives of the research priorities. François Biltgen stressed that "if the compromise currently supported by the Luxembourg Presidency on the financial perspectives is accepted, there will be an increase of between 31% and 55% in funds allocated to research in comparison with the Sixth Framework Programme. Whatever happens, there will be more financial resources for research."

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