COUNCIL RESOLUTION of 28 September 1995 on Crest (95/C 264/02)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Recalls that its resolution of 14 January 1974 on the coordination of national policies and teh definition of projects of interest to the Community in the field of science and technology (1) established a Scientific and Technical Research Committee (Crest);

Notes that the Single Act introduced a legal basis for Community policy on research and technological development (RTD) and that the entry into force of the Treaty on European Union has led to a broadening of the scope of this policy by giving research and technological development the dual objective of strengthening the scientific and technological bases of Community industry and encouraging it to become more competitive at international level, while promoting all the research activities deemed necessary by virtue of other chapters of the Treaty;

Notes that this development increases the need for a precise definition of the scientific and technical objectives of Community RTD programmes;

Recalls that Article 130g of the Treaty lays down that the Community shall carry out four kinds of activities (RTD programmes, cooperation with third countries, dissemination and optimization of results and training and mobility of researchers) complementng the activities carried out in thr Member States;

Notes that Article 130h of the Treaty states that the Community and the Member States shall coordinate their RTD activities so as to ensure that national policies and Commnity policy are mutually consistent and that in close cooperation with the Member States, the Commission may take any useful initiative to promote such coordination; recalls that in its conclusions of 9 June 1995 on the coordination of RTD policies, the Council assigned to Crest a specific role in this area;

Notes that the Corfu European Council in June 1994 asked the Council to seek increased coordination of national and Community RTD policies in order to make full use of the resources allocated to research, in accordance with the guidelines in the White Paper on Growth, competitiveness and employment;

Considers that such coordination may also extend to research activities covered by the ECSC and EAEC Treaties, without prejudice to the procedures set up by those Treaties and the powers of the bodies charged with implementing those procedures;

Notes that in its resolution of 15 June 1994 the European Parliament emphasized the essential role Crest had to play in defining the European Union's policy on science and technology and in improving he coordination of national and Community policies on RTD;

Notes that the globalization of RTD activities require the Communty to develop and implement an international RTD cooperation strategy consistent with the bjectives of the Treaty;

Points out the imrtance of independent and systematic evaluation of RTD activities with a view to defining future priorities;

Considers that Crest, has an advisory body, should make a significant contribution to:

- defining the Communitys strategic RTD guidelines,

- coordinating the RTD activities of the Community and the Member States, and

- evaluating Community RTD activities;

Agrees that, in order to deal with developments in the situation, an adjustment of the terms of reference of Crest is necessary, and accordingly replaces the resolution of 14 January 1974 with this resolution,

TO THAT END, THE COUNCIL HAS AGREED ON THE FOLLOWING:

1. Crest is an advisory body whose function is to assist the Council and the Commission in performing the tasks incumbent on them in the sphere of RTD.

2. The role of Crest is:

- to dentify, partcularly by means of comparative analyses of Member States' RTD policies, strategic priorities for Community policy, based on the criterion of added value while complying with the princi ple of subsidiarity, thereby helping the Commission to draw up Community RTD programmes,

- to romote coordination by the Community and the Member States of their RTD activities in order to ensure mutual consistency between national policies and Community policy,;

- to keep under review the independent assessment of the specific programmes and the framework programme, relying in particular on the programme committees, in order to learn useful lessons from them for Community RTD policy,;

- to contribute to the formulation of Community strategy for international cooperation in the sphere of research, including consultation within the Community in preparation for the proceedings of international bodies;

CREST shall also devote itself to the following activities:

- the dissemination and exploitation of the results of RTD and demonstration activities and of their impact on competitiveness and employment in the Community,

- training activities through and for research and their response to innovation needs.

3. Crest shall discharge its functions either at the request of the Council or the Commission or on its own initiative.

4. Crest shall consist of representatives responsible for RTD policies in the Member States and of Commission representatives.

Crest shall be chaired by a Commission representative. The secretariat of Crest shall be provided by the General Secretariat of the Council.

5. Crest shall draw up its rules of procedure.

Crest shall draw up and regularly update a provisional work programme which it shall forward to the Council and the Commission.

6. Records and oponions of Crest shall as far as possible record thr consensual opinion of its members and shall also make mention of minority views. They shall be forwarded to the Council and the Commission.

(1) OJ No C 7, 29. 1. 1974, p. 2.

DECLARATION

The Council and the Commission recall that to give effect to the provisions of Protocol 31 to the Agreement on the European Economic Area the EFTA/EEA countries regularly take part since the entry into force of the Agreement (1 January 1994) as observers in that part of its meetings at which Crest acts as adviser to the Commission, where items of interest to the EEA are involved.