Council Resolution

of 26 June 2001

on science and society and on women in science

(2001/C 199/01)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

1. RECALLING Articles 2 and 3 of the Treaty establishing the European Community, which enshrine the promotion of equality between men and women as one of the Community's objectives;

2. RECALLING the Conclusions of the European Councils in Lisbon on 23 and 24 March 2000 and in Stockholm on 23 and 24 March 2001 on the creation of a European knowledge-based society, including the emphasis placed on education, training and information technology skills and on the ethical aspects of biotechnology, respectively;

3. RECALLING the Commission's Communication of 18 January 2000 "Towards a European research area" as well as its Communication of 4 October 2000 on "Making a reality of the European research area" in which reference is made to the importance of science and society issues;

4. RECALLING the Council Resolution of 16 November 2000(1) on the need to deepen the debate on science in society, to increase public awareness of the issues and to reinforce the links between research policies and societal needs;

5. NOTING the Commission's working document of 16 November 2000 on "Science, society and the citizen in Europe", which points to a series of important issues for both policy-makers and the European citizen and the own-initiative report of the Economic and Social Committee of 30 May 2001 on this document;

6. BEARING IN MIND the discussions on science and society at the Uppsala informal meeting of Ministers for Education and Research on 2 March 2001;

7. RECALLING the meeting held on scientific and technological culture in Lisbon on 10 and 11 May 2001;

8. BEARING IN MIND the European Technology Assessment Network (ETAN) report "Science policies in the European Union: Promoting excellence through mainstreaming gender equality" of November 1999;

9. RECALLING the progress accomplished in the Member States and associated countries since the Commission's Communication on "Women and science: mobilising women to enrich European research" and the Council Resolution of 20 May 1999 on women and science(2), as well as the Resolution by the European Parliament of 3 February 2000 on this communication; WELCOMING the work of the Helsinki Group;

10. NOTING the Commission's working document of 15 May 2001 on "Women and science: the gender dimension as a leverage for reforming science", which suggests a strategy on women and science;

11. NOTING the recent CREST report on Science and Society;

12. RECOGNISES the need:

- to stimulate a dialogue with society at large on issues of public interest and concern in the field of science,

- to promote interest in science education, in research and in careers in science among young people,

- to promote the role of women in science and to stimulate their career prospects in the field of science and science management,

- to concentrate and continue efforts to promote gender mainstreaming both on a European and on a national level;

13. RECOGNISES that these issues are inherent to all aspects of scientific and technological advancement, and underlines the importance of openness regarding scientific advances and of greater participation by society and stakeholders in policy-making processes;

14. RECOGNISES that the proposal for the sixth framework programme contributes to the creation of the European research area and WELCOMES that the issue of science and society is included in this proposal as one of the priority activities; RECOGNISES the need to ensure that science and society issues are dealth with in a coherent and coordinated way throughout the whole framework programme,

TO THIS END, the Council, in relation to science and society:

15. ENCOURAGES the Member States and the Commission to explore measures for the networking, benchmarking and exchange of best practices to improve the science and society dialogue, including, where appropriate, the examination of the need to develop common practices and guidelines on risk assessment and management and on the use of scientific advice for governance;

16. ENCOURAGES Member States and the Commission to undertake efforts to improve public awareness of science and technology, to stimulate the popularisation of science and the interest of the media in this respect, including the possibility of developing a European initiative on scientific and technological culture, and to boost science education, in particular by reinforcing the coordination of national and European activities and policies in these fields, while emphasising the need to develop strategies to attract the younger generation to careers in science and technology;

17. INVITES the Member States and the Commission to promote, in close liaison with the scientific community, regular events of high visibility and quality presenting important topics of scientific and technological research and exploring scientific and technological issues of interest to the public at large;

18. INVITES Member States and the Commission to pursue activities aimed at initiating a dialogue on ethical issues in relation to science and technologies at the European, national, regional and local levels;

19. RECOMMENDS the Commission, together with representatives from national institutions in the Member States and involving, as appropriate, candidate countries and countries associated to the Community research programmes, to explore the means of promoting cooperation with existing bodies operating in this area with a view to monitoring social, ethical and legal developments with respect to relevant science and technology research topics and to increase the exchange of information on them;

20. INVITES the Commission to submit to the Council its proposed action plan on science and society before the end of 2001,

TO THIS END, the Council, in relation to women in science:

21. INVITES the Commission:

- to continue and intensify its efforts to promote the role of women in science and technology and to ensure an effective mainstreaming of the gender dimension when implementing the sixth framework programme and developing the European research area,

- in particular, to promote gender equality in those areas dealing with human resources and mobility activities,

- to pay particular attention to the gender dimension in benchmarking activities;

22. URGES the Commission to reach its target of a 40 % participation of women at all levels in implementing and managing research programmes, while continuing to bear in mind the need to ensure scientific and technological excellence;

23. INVITES Member States and the Commission to pursue the efforts undertaken to promote women in science at national level, to collect gender-disaggregated statistics in human resources in science and technology and to develop indicators in order to monitor progress towards equality between men and women in European research;

24. INVITES the Member States and the Commission to support the Helsinki Group in continuing its work, and to deepen cooperation to promote the role of women in European research;

25. INVITES the Commission to report on progress in the area of women in science within two years.

(1) OJ C 374, 28.12.2000, p. 1.

(2) OJ C 201, 16.7.1999, p. 1.