COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES 
C0MC89) 545 final - SYN 182 
vSv_^^^i Brussels, 10 November 19&9 
'-^S^l Re-examined proposal for a 
COUNCIL DECISION 
adopting a specific research and technological development 
programme in the field of biotechnology 
(1990 - 1994) 
BRIDGE 
(Biotechnology Research for Innovation, 
Development and Growth in Europe) 
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(presented by the Commission pursuant to Article 149.2(d) 
of the EEC Treaty) 
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EXPLANATORY flEHORANOUH 
1. On 1 1 October 1909 the European Parliament in its second reading of t;h<? 
BRIDGE proposai (COM(00)806) adopted two amendments to the Common 
Position. 
Pursuant to Art. 149 2d of the EEC Treaty, the Commission takes as a 
basis for its re-exarained proposal the Common Position with one 
exception: the Commission modifies the text of the Common Position by 
taking into account the substance of parliamentary amendment n° 2 
concerning deliberate release. 
In countries where no regulations or guidelines governing deliberate 
release currently exist, the Commission believes that it is necessary in 
the implementation of the programme to place responsibility upon project 
proposers and to have an active involvement of national authorities in 
order to ensure safety. Therefore, the Commission modifies the third 
paragraph of the implementation section of Action I in Annex I of the 
Common Position by requiring that project proposers, planning to ini­
tiate release experiments, "obtain the written consent" of the 
competent authorities and not "ascertain that there is no objection". 
This modification falls in line with terminology agreed in pending 
deliberate release legislation proposed by the Commission (C0H(88)160 
final). 
3. Comment of the Commission on the amendment of Parliament not accepted bv 
the Commission 
As regards the first part of amendment n° 1, whilst the Commission has 
undertaken to include in all future specific RDT programme proposals a 
provision concerning the relationship between the term "amount deemed 
necessary", the budgetary procedure and the interinstitutional agreement 
on budgetary discipline it considers untimely the introduction of any 
such provision for proposals already submitted as this could delay the 
adoption of the programmes concerned. 
The Commission cannot accept the second part of amendment n° 1 because 
the amounts to be allocated to different research areas are to be deci­
ded by the budgetary authority and not by the legislature. Dependent 
upon the availability of budgetary means, the Commission intends to 
commit at least 3 MECU to the third paragraph of the implementation 
section of Action II. 
4. The text of the re-examined proposal is to be found at Annex I. The 
text of the amendment of Parliament, which is not accepted by the 
Commission, is to be found at Annex II. 
ANNEX 1 
The Commission modifies the Common Position (Annex 1, 
Action I, Implementation, third paragraph) as follows: 
Participants in a project conducted as a shared-cost action 
may be industrial enterprises, including small and medium 
enterprises, research institutions, universities or combina­
tions of them, established in the Community or in those 
European third countries which have concluded framework 
agreements in scientific and technical co-operation with the 
Community. Pending the implementation of the provisions of a 
possible Council Directive on deliberate release into the 
environment of genetically modified organisms, proposals 
selected will have to conform, in the country where the 
release experiment is to take place, to relevant safety 
regulations or guidelines; in those countries where no such 
regulations or guidelines have been developed, the project 
proposers planning to initiate release experiments will 
obtain the written consent from the competent authorities 
concerned. 
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ANNEX 2 
Amendment n° 1 of the European Parliament 
Article Z, third and,fourth 
paragraphs (new) • 
Each year, In the context 
annual budgetary procedure. 
Commission shall propose to the 
budgetary authority that these 
appropriations be entered for the 
programme on the basis of the real 
needs of the reference financial 
year and the financial estimates as 
featured in the Inter-
Institutional Agreement. 
A minimum of 5% of the total BRIDGE 
budget shall be allocated to 
parallel research projects 1n th« 
form of soda!-science s r«s«<rc*i 
Into the possible effect» o f _ih$. 
generic technologies and techftjgmt 
to be supported unàer the BfrJPQf, 
programme. The social-sciences 
research shall be a separate sub-
programme within the BRIOCE 
programme with Its own budget of not 
less than S m ECU. 
c DN51 16.10.89 
ISSN 0254-1475 
COM(89) 545 final 
DOCUMENTS 
EN * 16 
Catalogue number : CB-CO-89-504-EN-C 
ISBN 92-77-54411-2 
Office for Official Publications of the European Communities 
L-2985 Luxembourg 
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