02/06/2009

European Union. The Council adopts key conclusions in the fields of research and innovation and intellectual property

The last Competitiveness Council adopted a number of important conclusions in the fields of research and innovation. They concern the following areas:

- The evaluation and impact assessment of European research framework programmes. It was inter alia noted that while simplification was introduced between FP6 and FP7, reduction of administrative complexities in the FP management procedures requires further attention.

- The first steps towards the realization of the European Research Area (Vision 2020). In this context, the need to further ensure synergies between Community instruments such as FP7, CIP, the Structural Funds, the ERA Ljubljana Process, the common framework on Education and Training and the Bologna Process, as well as non Community tools such as EUREKA and COST, was underlined.

- The Research Infrastructures and the regional dimension of the European Research Area. A political agreement was reached on the Commission proposal for a regulation for a community legal framework for European Research Infrastructures. It should support their setting up as common and ready-to-use legal structures having the status of international organizations and facilitate cooperation between Member States who wish to jointly develop world-class research facilities.

Finally, the Council had discussions, among other items, on the establishment of a Community patent and a unified patent litigation system. In this regard, a political agreement was reached for requesting an opinion to the European Court of Justice on whether the envisaged legal instrument to be concluded is compatible with the EC Treaty.

Related Links:
Council conclusions on the Research Framework Programmes
Council conclusions on ERA
Council conclusions on the Research Infrastructures and the regional dimension of ERA
European Commission press release on European Research Infrastructures
Proposal on the Community legal framework for a European Research Infrastructure

Related news items in IPR-Helpdesk:
05/12/2008 EU. Competitiveness Council results on research and IPR